
Class 



Book.^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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TT Fi K^ 3^'^" 



American Baptist Pulpit 

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY. 



EDITED BY 

HENRY THOMPSON LOUTHAN 



The Baptist Churches of America 
Distinct as the Billows, 
Yet One as the Sea. 



PUBLISHED 

BY THE EDITOE, 

WILLIAMSBURG, VA. 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Rec«ived 

A!K5 12 '903 

n Copyright Entry 

cussy cc^ xxc N». 
^ S -- T s 

COPY B. 



<^ 



UJ 



Copyright, 1903, 
By Henry Thompson Louthan 






PRESSES OF 

THE J. L. HILL PRINTING CO., 

RICHMOND, VA. 






CARTER MCKIM LOUTHAN 



AND 



MARY ELLA LOUTHAN, 



WHO, AROUND THE FAMILY ALTAR 

AND IN 

THE OLD CHURCH AT BERRYVILLE, 

THE COUNTY-SEAT OF CLARKE 

NESTLED LIKE A JEWEL IN 

VIRGINIA'S BEAUTIFUL SHENANDOAH VALLEY, 

TAUGHT THEIR CHILDREN TO LOVE 

THE BIBLE AND THE BAPTISTS AND HIM 

OF WHOM THESE PAGES SPEAK, 

THIS VOLUME IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY THEIR SON, 

THE EDITOR. 



CO]t^TE:N'TS 

Page. 
Foreword 11 

Introduction 21 

William H. Whitsitt, D. D., LL. D., Richmond, Va. 

I. Net-Mending 25 

Joseph K. Wilson, D. D., Portland, Me. 

II. The Gospel, the Power of God Unto Salvation 34 

Rev. William Hurlin, Antrim, N. H. 

III. The Breadth of Redemption 45 

Rev. Fred Elmer Marble, Ph. D., Brattleboro, Vt. 

IV. Christ and Current Controversies 57 

George C. Lorimer, D. D., LL. D., Boston, Mass. 

V. God's Righteousness Like the Great Mountains 72 

Henry Melvllle King, D. D., Providence, R. I. 

VI. The Name Above Every Name 87 

Charles A. Piddock, D. D., Hartford, Conn. 

VII. How TO Save Souxs 94 

Amzi Clarence Dixon, D .D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

VIII. Christmas and Human Joy , 104 

James T. Dickinson, D. D., East Orange, N. J. 

IX. The Church of the Future. 115 

Kerr Boyce Tupper, D. D., LL. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 

X. The Humanity of Christ 137 

Rev. Frederic Foye Briggs, B. A., Wilmington, Del. 

XL Why Be Baptized.^ lli 

Rev. Junius W. Millard, M. A., Baltimore, Md. 

XII. The Beginning of Wisdom 158 

Samuel H. Greene, D. D., LL. D., Washington, D. C. 

XIII. Jesus As a Witness to the Truth 167 

Thomas C. Johnson, D. D., Charleston, W. Va. 

XIV. The Value of the Experimental Hope 176 

William E. Hatcher, D. D., LL. D., Richmond, Va. 



6 CONTENTS. 

Page. 

XV. The Scarlet Line ,..,.. 195 

AiX)Nzo C. Barron, D. D., Charlotte, N. C. 

XVI. A Sample of Grace ,.. 201 

David M. Ramsey, D. D., Charleston, S. C. 

XVII. Consecrated Childhood , 211 

William W. Landrum, D. D., LL. D., Atlanta, Ga. 

XVIII. The Sea No More....... ,. 220 

Rev. Samuel M. Provence, M. A., Tallahassee, Fla. 

XIX. Religion and Reform. 228 

George B. Eager, D. D., Montgomery, Ala. 

XX. Christ and His Church.... . . .. 237 

John L. Johnson, D. D., LL. D., Duck Hill, Miss. 

XXI. The Unreturning. . ,. .,. .: 247 

Rev. Albert G. Moseley, Th. M., New Orleans, La. 

XXII. The Subject and the Object of the Gospel 254 

George W. Truett, D. D., Dallas, Texas. 

XXIII. Four Fundamental Laws of Christian Service. 274 

Arthur J. Barton, D. D., Little Rock, Ark. 

XXIV. Seeing the Unseen 291 

John O. Rust, D. D., LL. D., Nashville, Tenn. 

XXV. Labor and Reward..,.., ,. 303 

Joseph S. Murrow, D. D., Atoka, Ind. Ter. 

XXVL The Mission Spirit. ,. . 308 

Rev. William M. Anderson, B. S., Oklahoma City, Ok. 

XXVIL The Great Salvation 317 

Carter Helm Jones, D. D., Louisville, Ky. 

XXVIII. Jesus, the World's Great Commoner 328 

William L. Pickard, D. D., Cleveland, Ohio. 

XXIX. The Ministry of Reconciliation. 346 

Thomas J. Villers, D. D., Indianapolis, Ind. 

XXX. Our Father's Kingdom 363 

Lathan a. Crandall, D. D., Chicago, 111. 

XXXI. The Greatest Thing in the World 377 

Donald D. MacLaurin, D. D., Detroit, Mich. 



CONTENTS. 7 

Page. 

XXXIL A Trumpet Call 392 

Marvin G. Hodge, D. D., Beaver Dam, Wis. 

XXXIIT. The CREAxrRE Type of Character 405 

Herbert F. Stilwell, D. D., St. Paul, Minn. 

XXXIV. The Testimony of Jesus 41S 

John W. Weddell, D. D., Davenport, Iowa. 

XXXV. God's Ultimate Pitrpose in Human Life 433 

RuFus P. Johnston, D. D., St. Louis, Mo. 

XXXVI. The History of a Derelict 443 

Philip W. Crannell, D. D., Topeka, Kan. 

XXXVII. An Easter Sermon 453 

H. OwAiN Rowlands, D. D., Lincoln, Neb. 

XXXVIII. The Supreme Purpose 465 

Rev. John F. :Mills, B. A., Grand Forks, N. D. 

XXXIX. The Burdened Soul. 475 

Thomas M. Shanafelt, D. D., Huron, S. D. 

XL. The Witnessing Redeemer 487 

Edward Braislin, D. D., Colorado Springs, Col. 

XLI. Something Worth While ., , 497 

Rev. Sidney C. Davis, Cheyenne, Wy. 

XLII. The Pathos and Potency of Piety 504 

Rev. Louis G. Clark, Helena, Mon. 

XLIII. The Great Epoch of History 515 

Rev. Henry Van Engelen, Pocatello, Idaho. 

XLIV. Paul's Sufficiency vs. Athenian Efficiency 523 

Rev. B. F. Hudelson, Reno, Nevada. 

XLV. Religion an Inward Life 533 

Rev. Henry B. Steelman, M. A., Salt Lake City, Utah. 

XL VI. Reciprocity 543 

Rev. Herman J. Powell, B. A., Carlsbad, N. M. 

XLVII. Samu:el in the Temple 554 

Lewis Halsey, D. D., Phoenix, Ar. 

XLVIII. Ezekiel and the Word 564 

Eber a. Woods, D. D., San Francisco, Cal. 



8 CONTENTS. 

Page. 

XLIX. The Lord's Supper 576 

Alexander Blackburn, D. D., Portland, Or. 

L. A Son's Identity Pro^t:d 589 

Oliver W. Van Osdel, D. D., Spokane, Wash. 

LI. The Manwabd Side of Religion 600 

Rev. Galon S. Clevenger, Skag^vay, Alaska. 

LII. The Evangelization of Latin America 608 

Rev. Hugh P. McCormick, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico. 

LIIL Peace 618 

Rev. Eric Lund, Ho Ilo„ Philippine Islands. 

LIV. The Statesmanship of Jesus 625 

Henry C. Mabie, D. D., Boston, Mass. 

LV. God and Man in Foreign Missions 642 

Robert J. Willingham, D. D., Richmond, Va. 

LVI. The Successful Life , 659 

James Boardman Hawthorne, D. D., Richmond, Va. 

LVIL No More Sea. 668 

Russell H. Conwell, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 

LVIII. Spiritual Sovereignty 679 

Edgar Y. Mullins, D. D., LL. D., Louisville, Ky. 

LIX. The Secret of Victory 686 

Augustus H. Strong, D. D., LL. D., Rochester, N. Y. 

LX. They Shall See His Face 696 

John P. Greene, D. D., LL. D., Liberty, Mo. 

LXI. The Kingdom That Changed Rulers 708 

Galusha Anderson, S. T. D., LL. D., Chicago, 111. 

LXII. The Assured Safety of the Saints 733 

Franklin H. Kerfoot, D. D., LL. D., Atlanta, Ga. 

LXIII. America as a Field of Opportunity 752 

Henry L. Morehouse, D. D., New York, N. Y. 



HENEY THOMPSON LOUTHAX was bora at "Melrose,"' the plantation 
home of his maternal grandfather, Captain Charles Brown, in Rappahan- 
nock county, Va., Xovember 5, 1866. His maternal grandmother's father, 
Hon. Alexander Doniphan Kelly, of Fauquier county, Va., was a member of 
the Virginia Legislature when our nation was young. His paternal grand- 
father, John Louthan, was a prosperous planter in Clarke county, Va., 
being a descendant through his mother, nee Lucy Drake, of Sir Thomas 
Drake, a brother of Sir Francis Drake, the great Admiral of England. His 
paternal grandmother was a daughter of Joseph Carter, of Frederick county, 
Va., whose ancestors also came from England. The progenitors of both the 
Louthan and Brown families came from bonny Scotland and settled in Vir- 
ginia in colonial days. Henry is the son of tarter ]M. Louthan and Mary 
Ella Louthan, who tire months after his birth made their home in the country 
near Bernwille, Clarke county, Va. His father was a soldier under Stone- 
wall Jackson and Gen. Robert E. Lee. He was educated at the University 
of Virginia, and after peace had been declared began the practice of law. 
For ni^iie years he was Commonwealth's Attorney for Clarke, his native 
county, and later was her Superintendent of Public Schools. He now resides 
at Charlottesville, Va., and has long been one of the most popular stump 
speakers in the State. Henry's mother, who died March 14, 1885, was edu- 
cated at the Albemarle Female Institute at Charlottesville. Both of his 
parents belonged to Baptist families, and he will ever be thankful that his 
early training was received in a cultured Christian home. His uncle, Wil- 
liam P. Louthan, M. A., was Professor of Greek in Richmond College in 
1860--61, but died in June of the latter year. Henry attended the High 
School at Berryville and for two years a private school. When fourteen 
years old he Avas converted, and became a member of the Berryville Baptist 
Church. One month and five days before he was seventeen he was teaching 
a public school, and continued to do so for three sessions. In May, 1885, he 
began the study of law in his father's office, and kept in close touch with 
Blackstone, Greenleaf, and Vattel for one year. On Easter Monday in 1886, 
however, after an earnest talk v.-ith his pastor, Dr. Julian Broaddus, he de- 
cided to prepare for the ministry. In June he was appointed colporter for 
the Shenandoah Baptist Association. He was engaged in this work during 
three vacations. In September, 1886. he entered Richmond College, where 
he remained for five sessions. He received the gold medal for being the best 
debater of the Mu Sigma Rho Literary Society during the session of 1890- 
'"91. In October, 1891, he became principal of the public school at Washing- 
ton, Rappahannock county, Va., where he taught two sessions. In May, 
1892, he began his first pastorate at F. T. Baptist Church, located in his 
native county. On July 31st following he was ordained there. Revs. Thomas 
F. Grimsley, E. W. Winfrey, and Dr. A. E. Dickinson taking part in the 
sers'ices. That fall he became pastor at Woodville also, in the same county. 
In September, 1893, he entered the University of Virginia for one year, 
taking a special course in logic, moral philosophy, and general history. 
Soon after entering the L'niversity he became pastor of Mountain Plain and 
Hillsboro churches, near Charlottesville, remaining with them until Septem- 
ber, 1895. He then became a student for three years at the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky. In June, 1898, he returned to Vir- 
ginia, and in October became pastor of Howard's-Grove Church, in Rich- 
mond. While there he began his work on The Americax Baptist Pulpit. 
August 1, 1901, he became pastor at Williamsburg, Va., where he is now 
located. On March 25, 1903, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Row- 
land Hurt, a native Virginian, but who went with her parents three months 
after her birth to make their home in Detroit, ]\Iich. She is the daughter 
of Mrs. Anne Thomas Hurt, now of Caroline coimty, Va., and of the late 
Mr. James T. Hurt, who was a prosperous merchant in that beautiful city 
on the Great Lakes. Henry's brother. Rev. Alexander Doniphan Louthan, a 
graduate of Richmond College and of the Southern Baptist Tlieological 
Seminary, has nearly completed his medical course, preparatory for foreign 
?nission work. His sister. Miss Mary P. Louthan. educated in Richmond 
and Hollins. Va., has devoted her life to teaching. Tlie editor of this 
volume for five years wrote "Virginia Sketches" for the Richmond Dispatch, 
and is now the Southern correspondent of The Standard of Chicago. In 
June, 1903, he was chosen instructor in Latin and Greek in William and 
Maiy College, Williamsburg, Va., where he will continue also his pastoral 
work. 

(9t 







:7J^^- ->r^ 



^ 




rOREWOEP 

Baptists^ like the leaven in the three measures of meal, were 
found here and there among the first settlers of the original thir- 
teen English colonies of America. 

The Puritans of Plymouth during their ten years' sojourn in 
Holland had mingled with the Baptists there, and some of them 
seem to have brought over Baptist tendencies even in the Mayflower. 
Holland Baptists had crossed to England and extended their princi- 
ples in the island kingdom ; and again and again a persecuted Bap- 
tist there in the land of Bunyan found refuge in America, and, 
planted here, brought forth good fruit. 

As the colonies grew and waxed strong, so did the Baptists in the 
new world. It seems strange, however, that many who crossed the 
Atlantic to find liberty of conscience for themselves, should deny 
it to others. Massachusetts and Connecticut fined, imprisoned, 
whipped, or banished those who taught doctrines opposed to the 
Congregationalist establishment. Catholic Maryland had tolera- 
tion, but not religious freedom. Virginia, from her founding in 
1607 to the Ee volution in 1775, the Protectorate of Cromwell ex- 
cepted, had her tobacco tax for the support of Episcopacy; and 
many Baptist ministers were arrested, fined and imprisoned for 
preaching the Gospel "without license from magistrate or general 
court." 

About the year 1630, a young minister left England for America, 
because he could not conscientiously conform to soane parts of the 
doctrine and worship of the established church. He was born in 
Wales in 1599, and was educated at Oxford University. This young 
man, in the midst of a Few England winter, January, 1635, was 
driven from the colony of Massachusetts because of his Baptist prin- 
ciples, and for fourteen weeks wandered "in winter snow, not know- 
ing what bread or bed did mean." 



12 FOREWORD. 

This yoimg hero of thirty-six was Eoger Williams, the founder of 
the State of Ehode Island, where he established religious freedom, 
which was not simply toleration, but soul liberty in its largest, full- 
est, freest sense. Here for the first time in the world^s history was 
there a civil government which claimed no jurisdiction in religion. 

Although Eoger Williams had embraced Baptist principles quite 
fully before he was banished, he was not baptized until after he 
settled Ehode Island. With him twelve other persons became Bap- 
tists with no guide but the New Testament. As they knew of no Bap- 
tist minister whose services they could procure, they selected one 
of their number, Ezekiel Holliman, to baptize Mr. Williams, 
who then administered the ordinance to the others. These formed 
themselves, in March, 1639, into a church with Eoger Williams as 
pastor. This was the First Baptist Church of Providence, Ehode 
Island, and the first in America. The church then organized con- 
tinues to this day. 

The Baptists of America are largely indebted to Welshmen for 
laying the foundation of their denomination in N'ew York, Virginia, 
North and South Carolina, and they were the first to found a Bap- 
tist church not only in Ehode Island, but also in New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Massachusetts, and Delaware. 

When the American colonies began to resist British oppression, 
the Baptists realized that a great opportunity was at hand. They 
longed not only for deliverance from civil oppression, but also from 
the burden of the establishment, and of those laws which denied to 
them the rights of conscience and taxed them to pay "tribute" to^ 
a church to which they did not belong and in which they did not 
believe. And so, when the Baptists threw themselves into- the strug- 
gle for American independence, they made the request that the 
contest should be for religious liberty also. 

The leaders, as well as the mass of Baptists, both North and 
South, were engaged in the Eevolution on the side of the Colonies. 
Their ministers went into the army, some as officers, some as chap- 
lains and still others as privates, and greatly inspired their fellow 
soldiers by their patriotism. Among these may be mentioned Eev. 
Charles Thompson and Eev. Hezekiah Smith, D. D., of Massachu- 
setts; Eev. Dr. Eogers, of Philadelphia, and Eev. David Jones, of 



rOEEWORD. 13 

'New Jersey. Eev. John Gano, the first pastor of the First Baptist 
Church of i^ew York city, was granted a leave of absence to enter 
the army as a chaplain. 

John Hart, of Hopewell, N"ew Jersey, was a Baptist and a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence. He represented N'ew Jersey 
in the Continental Congress in 1774. He risked and lost every- 
thing — home and property — ^by putting his name to that memorable 
instrument. English troops hunted him and he had to flee for his 
life. In 1776, he was elected speaker of the New Jersey House 
of Assembly, to which position he was twice re-elected. His native 
State has honored him b}^ erecting a granite monument to his mem- 
or}^, with this inscription : "Honor the Patriot's Grave.*' 

Colonel Joab Houghton was one of the first to advocate calling 
the ISTew Jersey Provincial Congress which overthrew English rule 
there. One Sunday morning, while he was worshipping in the Bap- 
tist church at Hopewell, New Jersey, of which he was a member, 
a messenger, all breathless, came in and whispered something in his 
ear. It was respecting the battles of Concord and Lexington. Dr. 
S. H. Cone, a grandson of Colonel Houghton, describes the scene : 

"Stilling the breathless messenger, he sat quietly through the 
services, and when they were ended, he passed out, and mounting 
the great stone block in front of the meeting-house, he beckoned 
to the people to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious to 
know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. 
At the first words a silence still as death fell over all. The Sab- 
bath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into^ a terrible 
solemnity. He told them all, the story of the cowardly murder at 
Lexington by the royal troops ; the heroic vengeance following hard 
upon it; the retreat of Percy; the gathering of the children of the 
Pilgrims around the beleaguered hills of Boston ; then pausing and 
looking over the silent tlirong he said slowly : 'Men of New Jersey, 
the red-coats are murdering our brethren of N'ew England! 
Who follows me to Boston ?' and every man of that audience stepped 
out into line and answered : 'I !' There was not a coward or a traitor 
in old Hopewell Baptist meeting-house that day." 

Such was the spirit of the American Baptists during the Eevolu- 
tion. Washington says: "Baptist chaplains were among the most 



14 FOREWORD. 

prominent and useful in the army ;" and ag-ain : "The Baptists have 
been, throughout x^merica, uniformly and almost unanimously, the 
fast friends of civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our 
glorious Revolution, and I cannot hesitate to believe that they will 
be the faithful supporters of a free, yet efficient government. 

Some years ago at a dinner in England, the late Dr. J. L. M. 
Curry, the distinguished educator, statesman, author, diplomat and 
Baptist, was seated next to John Bright, the well-known English 
statesman. In the course of the conversation, Mr. Bright said to 
Dr. Curry : "What distinct contribution has America made to politi- 
cal science?" Dr. Curry promptly replied: "The doctrine of reli- 
gious liberty." "A priceless contribution, indeed," said Mr. Bright. 

The late Dr. Charles F. James in his valuable book — "The Strug- 
gle for Religious Liberty in Virginia" — tells us how the Baptists in 
the Old Dominion started the great contest which finally gave reli- 
gious liberty to America as we have it to-day. 

Dr. James says: "The struggle began in 1775 and reached its 
first culmination in 1779, when the establishment was overthrown 
by the repeal of all laws levying taxes for its support. But the Revo- 
lution was scarcely over before the friends of the old establishment 
devised a scheme for reviving it under a modified form. Two bills 
were framed and presented to the Legislature, a General Incorpora- 
tion Bill and a General Assessment Bill, the one providing for tlie 
incorporation of all the leading denominations of the State, includ- 
ing the Baptists, and the other providing for their support by taxa- 
tion. It was a most subtle and plausible scheme, as it was thor- 
oughly impartial and allowed every tax-payer the privilege of desig- 
nating the denomination which should receive his tax. It had the 
advantage of being fathered by the "Orator of the Revolution," Pat- 
rick Henry. It was backed by all the friends of the old establish- 
ment, and it finally won the support of the powerful and influential 
Hanover Presbytery, whose leaders, according to the testimony of 
their own historian. Dr. Foote, were won over by the influence of 
Mr. Henry. It seemed as though the bill would surely pass, and it 
was a most critical time for the cause of liberty. All denomina- 
tions except the Baptists had gone over to this new and liberal 
scheme, which proposed to take them all in. And had they proven 



FOREWORD. 15 

untrue to their principles, the cause would have been lost, and one 
of the brightest pages in Virginia's history would not have been 
written. * * * Those early Baptists had an unquenchable love 
of liberty. The truth of the N"ew Testament malces men free indeed, 
and it inspires them with a love of freedom, not for themselves only, 
but for all men. And it was because they possessed these traits that 
they resisted the temptation of the General Incorporation and Gen- 
eral Assessment, and stood their ground amid the general deser- 
tion. They resolved to continue the fight, and asking their faithful 
champion, James Madison, to embody their views in a "remon- 
strance," they took the field and re-canvassed the State for signa- 
tures to their petition. As the people read that powerful and 
unanswerable argument, reaction set in ; the Presbyterian laity, who 
had never been much in favor of the bill, got after their clergy, and 
there was a hastily gathered convention at Bethel, in Augusta 
county, where that body placed themselves on record against the 
Assessment, and then for the first time gave their approval to Jef- 
ferson's Bill of Eeligious Freedom. When the Legislature met in 
October, '85, the roll of signatures to the petition and remonstrance 
was so large that it was rolled up the aisle to« the clerk's table on a 
wheelbarrow. The Assessment Bill was dead, and Jefferson's bill 
was promptly brought forward and adopted. Having led in the 
fight for religious liberty in Virginia, our Baptist fathers, with 
the help of their brethren and friends of other States, secured its 
incorporation into the Constitution of the United States. And now 
this tree of liberty has spread its branches over this ISTew World, 
and the winds and waves have wafted its seed back to the Old, to 
bring forth like precious fruit there, quenching the fires of persecu- 
tion, overthrowing religious establishments, breaking off the 
shackles that bind the consciences and enslave the souls of men, 
and hastening the progress of our race towards that glorious day 
when "the kingdom of this world" shall be the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ." 

It is no wonder then that a Baptist, Eev. Samuel Francis Smith, 
D. D., gave to America, in 1833, her National Hymn : 



16 FOREWORD. 

"My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing: 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
From every mountain-side 

Let freedom ring!" 

In the year 1792, the Baptists in the United States numbered 
65,000; in 1800, about 100,000; and in 1832, when the American 
Baptist Home Mission Society was organized, 385,000. In 1901, 
the first year of the twentieth century, there were 4,269,295 Bap- 
tists in our country, a greater host than Moses led from the Nile 
to Nebo. Of this latternumber about 1,800,000 were colored Baptists 
largely of the South, having their own houses of worship and men of 
their own race as ministers. As to the Indians, Dr. J. S. Murrow, 
who for over forty years has been their missionary in Indian Terri- 
tory, writes me these words : "There are not as many Indian Bap- 
tists now as ten or fifteen years ago. They are dying very rapidly. 
There are now about 3,000 full blood Indian Baptists in Indian 
Territory; 350 Blanket Indian Baptists in Oklahoma; a very few in 
the States, not over one hundred. There are some mixed bloods who 
are Baptists, but they are more white than Indian." 

By virtue of our fimdamental principles, each soul in this vast 
Baptist host has confessed individually before a local church his 
personal sin, his faith in Christ as his Saviour, his repentance toward 
God; and, upon this profession, has been immersed into the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For the bene- 
fit of the higher critic of the twenty-first century we will say that by 
immersed we mean that the candidate has been put down beneath 
the water and then taken out, just as John the Immerser did with 
Jesus in the Jordan, and as Jesus commands shall be done by all 
of those who believe in him. 

While the Baptist churches of the North and of the South have 
their separate organizations for carrying on their mission work, 
still we are one great undivided brotherhood. We believe in the 
independence of the local church, but we also believe in systematic 
cooperation for the extension of our Master's kingdom. The 



FOREWORD. 17 

Baptist churches of America are as distinct as the billows, yet one 
as the sea. 

Throughout the Union, Baptists stand for education and cul- 
ture. They are staunch supporters of America's great public school 
sptem, by which means the children of nearly all of our people 
receive their early training. But they have also put much of their 
strength into higher institutions of learning. These schools, next 
to their churches, are the greatest power for propagating their prin- 
ciples and for influencing the thought and life of America. In 
1901, the Baptists had under their control ninety-one academies, 
seminaries and institutes; one hundred and three universities and 
colleges; and nine theological seminaries. 

That year the valuation of their school property, plus endowment, 
was $45,545,243 ; and the valuation of their church property reached 
the grand total of $89,389,992. That same year they contributed 
8462,403 for the maintenance of seven hundred missionaries in 
foreign lands; $364,423 for State missions; $356,669 for Home 
missions; 8548,007 for Sunday School expenses; 853,519 for Bible 
and publication work; and $210,637 for education. 

The United States of America, as a nation, is abreast of the great 
world powers of earth, and is forging far ahead of many of them. 
The census of 1900 places our population, without enumerating the 
people of Porto Eico and the Philippines, at 76,303,387 souls. It 
has been estimated that our agricultural resources alone, when fully 
developed, will be capable of feeding 1,000 m ill ion people. America, 
with her manufacturing, mining, agricultural, educational and 
religious interests, holds the keys of the future. 

The Baptists of this country have therefore a great work to do. 
We cannot drift with the current and be good servants of our Lord. 
Every cult of religious thought and action that has a large following 
anywhere on the face of the globe, has its representatives in America. 
In Chicago, for example, there are congregations of the disciples 
of Confucius, of Buddha, of Zoroaster and of Mohammed. There, 
too, are gathered Mormons, Christadelphians, Babists, Truth-seek- 
ers, Christian Scientists and Spiritualists, who are deceiving many 
of the people. Our work then for Gospel principles should be 



18 FOREWOED. 

pressed more and more. We must ever watch and pray, and never 
lay onr armor down until our King has come. 

Every State^, territory and colony of the United States of 
America is represented in this volume:, with the exception of Hawaii, 
where, up to this time, we have no Baptist pastor. Our great mis- 
sion interests are also represented, as well as some of our leading 
institutions of learning. 

The American Baptist Pulpit is published as prepared for the 
press in 1900 and 1901, with the exception of the sermons by Drs. 
Galusha Anderson and Eussell H. Conwell, secured since that time. 
There have been additions to some of the biographies, indicated by 
dates later than the latter year. There have been a number of pasto- 
ral changes, which have not been mentioned in the biographies ; and 
Dr. Franklin H. Kerfoot, Dr. Marvin G. Hodge and Rev. Benjamin 
F. Hudelson have passed from scenes temporal into that city whose 
builder and maker is God. 

The editor is indebted to his friends. Dr. A. E. Dickinson and 
Dr. Eobert H. Pitt, editors of the Religious Herald, Virginia's well 
known Baptist weekly, for giving notices of this volume when the 
work was first commenced; to Mr. James S. Dickerson, editor of 
The Standard, published at Chicago, for similar notices and for 
sending lists from which to select representatives for the States in 
the West; and to the brethren whose sermons appear upon these 
pages, for their exceedingly kind cooperation. 

May these sermons of The American Baptist Pulpit at the 
beginning of the twentieth century, bless many hearts in many 
homes, and lead souls, even in generations yet to come, to the Lamb 
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. 

Henry Thompson Louthan. 

Williamsburg^ Va.^ July 15, 1903. 



WILLIAM HETH WHITSITT was born on his father's farm, on Mill 
Creek, thre>i miles south of Nashville, Tenn., iSTovember 25, 1841. His 
father was Reuben Ewing Whitsitt, and his mother's maiden name was 
Dicey Ann MeFarland. In 1852 his fatlier died, leaving young Whitsitt, a 
lad of eleven, to the training of his mother. His early education was ob- 
tained at a school on his father's farm, and later, under the oversight of his 
mother, he was sent to Mount Juliet Academy, Wilson county, Tenn. In 
1857 he entered Union University, Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he took the 
degree of M. A. in 1861. He served in the Confederate army in 1861-'65 
under Generals N. B. Forrest and Joseph Wheeler. He reached the rank of 
lieutenant, and later became chaplain of his regiment. After peace was de- 
clared he returned home and became pastor of Mill Creek Baptist Church, 
whose house of worship was located on his mother's farm. The session of 
18G6-*07 was spent at the Univensity of Virginia, and 1867-'69 at the South- 
ern Baptist Theological Seminary. In July, 1869, he arrived in Germany 
and spent the following year in the University of Leipsic, taking advance 
work in Latin, Greek, HebreAV, and Histoiy of Philosophy. The next year 
was spent in similar work at the University of Berlin. He returned to 
America in 1871, and for six months of the following year was pastor at 
Albany, Ga. While there he w^as elected to a professorship in the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary, located then at Greenville, S. C, entering 
upon his duties September 2, 1872. He filled different chairs at the Semi- 
nary, but is best known as Professor of Church History. For twenty-seven 
years he helped tb train the young ministers of our denomination. On May 
9, 1895, Dr. Whitsitt was unanimously elected President of the Seminary 
to succeed the late Dr. John A. Broadus. He filled the position with dis- 
tinguished success until June, 1899. Then, on account of a controversy 
concerning a question in Baptist history, which had been going on since 
j\Iay, 1896, and which may be called "The Whitsitt — 1641 — Immersion 
Question," he resigned and restored peace among the Baptists of the 
South. Among American Baptists there are no greater names than Jatoes 
P. Boyce, John A. Broadus, and William H. Whitsitt, the first three 
Presidents of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. So pure is 
Dr. \^'hitsitt's life and so gentle is his manner that his students love him 
as a father. For the next two years Dr. Whitsitt was engaged in literaiy 
work, spending about a year in special historical research in Europe. In 
September, 1901, he became Professor of Moral Philosophy in Richmond 
College, Virginia, which position he now holds. Dr. Whitsitt's main 
work has been along the line of historical research, but he is also a well- 
known author and lecturer, and an earnest gospel preacher. He attracts 
attention at once by his terse idiom and purity of diction. On October 
4, 1881, Dr. Whitsitt was happily united in marriage Avith Miss Florence 
Wallace, of Woodford county, Ky. Their home is blessed with two chil- 
dren, William and Mary. 
(19) 




IDLLWi M. I^ITSBTT, i. i., LL. i. 



INTRODUCTION 

By William Heth Whitsitt, D. D., LL. D., 

Virginia 

The idea which Mr. Louthan has conceived and worked out 
with so much patience in The American Baptist Pulpit seems to 
be ■tmique. It is certainly important and valuable. He has laid 
before us here a section of American Baptist life at the opening 
of the twentieth century. 

The progress of our country has been remarkable. It consti- 
tutes one of the marvels of human history. Extraordinary as the 
progress of the American government has been, the Baptists have 
contrived to keep pace with it. Though their condition at the date 
of the establishment of the Union was feeble and unpromising, 
they have everywhere advanced at a surprising ratio, not only in 
respect to numbers and wealth, but also in point of cultivation 
and influence. Baptists have distributed themselves over every 
portion of our vast domain, and Mr. Louthan has had little trou- 
ble to obtain a representative of the x^merican Baptist Pulpit in 
each of the different States and Territories, and also in every 
colony, except Hawaii.' 

A work of this nature cannot fail to possess a high degree of 
interest, especially for Baptist readers. They will be glad to study 
the discourses that are delivered in other parts of our land, and 
to compare them with those that are pronounced in the region 
where they themselves reside. 

It will be a matter of interest to observe the amount of uni- 
formity that may exist as respects the type of doctrine; whether 
the tone of sentiment and character is everywhere elevated and 
refined; in what portion of the country the thought of the va- 
rious discourses appears to be most marked by strength and clear- 



22 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ness and consistency; whether the refinements of education are 
equally apparent in different sections, and, above all, to what ex- 
tent the devotional temper is exalted and fervent and uniform. 

The teaching conve3'ed by Baptists pulpits will be found to 
bear favorable comparison ^^ith that conveyed by the pulpits of 
our fellow- Christians of other denominations. That they are 
taking an honorable and influential part in the great business of 
holding forth the Word of Life is abundantly evinced by the work 
here presented. May the favor of God rest upon every reader of 
it ! May their hearts burn within them as they consider the great 
concerns of eternal life, the holy joys, and supports of the people 
of God. 



JOSEPH KEXXAED WILSOX was born in Blackwood, N. J., June 29, 
1852. His father, Rev. James E. Wilson, was a useful and an honored min- 
ister, whose service of more than forty years was mainly in Xew Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. He was converted under his father's preaching, and bap- 
tized in the Blockley Baptist Church, Philadelphia, in December, 1867. 
After a brief business career, he entered Brown University, graduating with 
the class of 1873. His theological training was received at Crozer Seminary, 
from which institution he graduated in 1876. During his seminary course 
he supplied the church in Broadalbin, X. Y., for several months, and was 
ordained there in Xovember, 1874. In his senior year he was instrumental 
in organizing the church in Florence, X. J. Immediately upon graduation 
he became pastor of the First Church, Nyack, X. Y., remaining about two 
years. His subsequent pastorates have been Huntington-Street Church, 
Xew London, Conn., five years; Winthrop-Street Church, Taunton, Mass., 
eleven years; First Church, Melrose, IMass., four and a half years; and 
Free-Street Church, Portland, Me., where he is at present laboring. In 1897 
he received the degree of Doctor of Di^dnity from Ewing College, 111. 

Dr. Wilson has always taken an interest in the wider work of the King- 
dom. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Maine Baptist 
Missionary Convention. He also served on the Executive Committee of the 
Massachusetts Baptist Convention during most of the years of his residence 
in that State, and was at one time vice-president of that body. He was one 
of the earliest friends and advocates in the East of the Baptist Young Peo- 
ple's Union. He served for a time as the Massachusetts correspondent for T/ie 
Baptist Union, and was afterwards the Xew England editor of the same 
paper. He was the first president of the Massachusetts Baptist Young 
People's Union, and during his continuance in office brought about a com- 
pleteness and efficiency of organization scarcely surpassed by that of any 
other State. He is much in demand for service at meetings and conven- 
tions of young people. In 1890, in company with three friends, he made an 
extended tour in Europe and the East. 
(23) 




m L wmm, 1. 1. 



NET MENDING. 25 

I 

NET-MENDING 



By Joseph Kennard Wilson, D. D., 

Maine 

"And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of 
Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mend- 
ing their nets; and he called them." — Matt. 4: 21. , 

MANY years after tMs, one of the two men whose names are 
mentioned here, writing of Jesns, said, "He was the true light 
which lighteth ever}^ man that cometh into the world." And so^ 
indeed, he was ; not only in the broad spiritual sense in which John 
intended his words to be nnderstood, but in narrower^ less im- 
portant senses, also. It needs but a thought to show us that Jesus 
of Nazareth was the light of his own age and time^ — the light which 
reveals to us the men who lived then, the circumstances of their 
living, what they did, what they said, who they were. Apart from 
him they would be for the most part utterly unknown on the page 
of history ; the greatest of them simrply names occasionally read, but 
quickly forgotten. A^^io was Pontius Pilate? Who were Annas, 
and Oaiaphas, and Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea ? Scarcely 
more than names to us, until we remember their connection with 
the story of Jesus: then as the light of his personality falls upon 
them, they live, and move and have distinct individuality. They 
little thought it, in those da3^s, those proud Pharisees and scornful 
scribes, as they jeered at the peasant prophet of Galilee, that their 
only hold upon the memory of the ages to come was their relation 
to that same peasant prophet. Yet so it was. He was the light 
iD which they stand revealed; except for him, oblivion would long 
ago have claimed them for its own. 

And if this be so of those who might with some justice be 
reckoned as belonging to the "higher classes" of those times, how 



26 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

much more conspicuously true is it concerning those who could 
make no such claim? Take the disciples of Jesus, for example. 
Who were they? "Mere nobodies/' in the social scale. Fishermen 
and tax-gatherers, and the like. In the ordinary course of events, 
Peter would have gone on catching fish in Galilee, and selling them 
in Bethsaida and Tiberias, until the end of his life, without attract- 
ing any more notice than that usually given to a shrewd, venture- 
some fellow of his calling ; and Matthew would have collected taxes 
in the streets of Capernaum until his stiffened limbs refused to bear 
him to the accustomed place, and then would have retired to live 
upon his ill-gotten gains, to be speedily forgotten even by those 
who had known him best, or to be remembered only with execra- 
tions. But Jesus came. The light of his personality shone upon 
these men. At once they came into public notice, and everything 
pertaining to them became a matter of interest not only to those 
of their own time, but to the multitudes who read the story hundreds 
of years after they lived and died. To-day we follow with zest the 
varying fortunes of that bluff, large-hearted fisherman whom we 
love so well; and pause with eager attention at the tax-gatherer's 
table to see what will be the outcome of the Master's call to him. 
Mary of Magdala is an interesting personage to us, and so is that 
other Mary, of Bethany, and her sister, Martha; and, more than 
either, the sweet Mary of ^N'azareth. Even matters of slightest 
intrinsic importance acquire consequence and interest in our sight; 
as, for example, the all-night's fishing without reward, a common 
enough experience, no doubt, to the fishermen of that sea; the 
pJucking of a few grains of wheat, as the disciples walked through 
a certain field of a Sabbath; and even such an insignificant, com- 
monplace incident as the mending of a net, accidentally torn in 
fishing. Now, this interest is in none of these things, in them- 
selves considered. Take Jesus out of the picture, and none of them 
would have power to hold the attention for a single moment. He 
is the light which falls upon them, lending them beauty and 
picturesqueness ; and in their connection with the story of his life, 
only, are they worth recording or remembering. 

It is sometimes complained of preachers that they are over- 
much given to the spiritualizing of what is mere ordinary history. 



XET MEXDIXG. 27 

Given the most insignificant incident or event, and they will pro- 
ceed to draw from it the most important moral and spiritual truths, 
often overstepping, it is claimed, the bounds of reasonable inter- 
pretation, and reading into the special incident more than has any 
right or place there. So far as the individual instance is concerned, 
it may, or it may not be true. So far as the general charge is con- 
cerned, it is made against the Master rather than against any of his 
disciples, for he it is who has spiritualized all life, and has given 
to all things moral meanings and ministries. Greatest of all poets 
is he, who sees, and has made us to see, 

" Tongues in trees, books in tlie running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everTtbing." 

Greatest of all discoverers is he, who shows us that life is not an 
island in the sea of time, washed by the tides of the temporal and 
transient, merely: but a continent in the midst of the ocean of 
eternity, and swept by the currents of infinite and spiritual realities. 
The tiniest dewdrop sparkling in the sun, mirrors the vast expanse 
of the heavens above it. The commonest circumstance may glisten 
with suggestions of highest truths. Parables, types, symbols — ^these 
must be until the end of time: the lesser things that we can see 
and handle, teaching the larger things that otherwise would be 
beyond our ken. 

Two men, sitting in a boat on the seashore, mending a net that 
has been torn. What is there in that incident that is worth think- 
ing or talking about? Xothing at all: it is entirely commonplace 
and uninteresting: a very common and ordinary thing — simply a 
part of the prosaic routine of the fisherman's life. You might have 
seen almost any day on Galilee a dozen doing just what these two 
men were doing. 

But then Jesus comes to them : and straightway James and John 
assume new interest and importance. They are no longer ordinary 
fishermen: they are the Lord^s friends. Xo man on whom the 
Lord's regard is turned is thenceforth an ordinary man; no life 
that lies in the Divine light is thenceforth an ordinary life. And 
then the Master speaks the word of their co m mission, "Follow me, 
and I will make you fishers of men:" and in virtue of that saying 
this trivial incident glows with a profound spiritual meaning, and 



28 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

this otherwise "animportant act of the fishermen becomies a parable 
demanding our careful reading. And as the story is told, we think 
involuntarily and necessarily, not alone of the narrow sea, shim- 
mering at the Lord's feet, but of that great swelling sea of the 
world's sins and needs everywhere stretching; and we see not only 
those torn and tangled nets of knotted cords in Zebedee's boat, but 
those other nets, too, of love, and hope, and courage, and faith, and 
zeal, and life, which must be let down into the great deep for the 
doing of the Lord's will — nets that often get tangled, perhaps 
oftener get torn, and which must be mended so often, that the 
Lord's fishing, and ours, may go on. 

So, then, we have here our practical lessons : 

1.. Nets must be mended, for nets will get torn. 

Every fisherman knows that. There are a great many foes to the 
net's wholeness. - There may be a weak place in the cord itself, 
which gives way under strain; a sharp rock, or a larger fish than 
ordinary, nmy cut or break it; a little carelessness in casting or 
dragging it may wreck it. And, knowing all this, the fisherman 
watches it very closely, that he may know always its real condition, 
and very often he finds it necessary to spend time and pains in 
repairing the broken places, and getting the net ready for the next 
day's fishing. 

And other nets get broken, too — those with which we are to do 
our work for Christ; love gets frayed; hope is snapped in twain; 
faith is too weak to bear any strain; joy is broken away entirely; 
and all the life becomes sadly twisted and tangled. And some of 
the most wearisome and dreariest experiences of the Christian life 
may be summed up in the words, "mending the nets." 

Sometimes this is the more or less legitimate result of the work 
itself. However carefully handled, a net wears out by constant use, 
and, through no fault either of material or making, comes some- 
times to mending. Everything wears out in use. That musical 
instrument in which you so delight was made to be played upon, 
and is kept in its best condition by being played upon. But after 
a while the strings are loosened^ or the hammers are bent, or tlie 
reeds are split, and all its music is like the sound of 

" Sweet bells jangled, out of time, and harsh." 



NET MENDING. 29 

This is not to the disparagement of the skill or fidelity of the 
maker of the instrument. It is something to be expected. It is 
impossible for the instrnment always to bear the strain without 
giving way somewhere. 

A general principle lies in the illustration. Use means always 
some waste and loss. All effort of life involves a strain which mnst 
ho recognized. The spiritual life furnishes no exception to the rule. 
It is not infrequently the case that in the very midst of labors the 
most consecrated, and successes the most inspiring, the Christian 
becomes vaguely conscious that something is the matter. A change 
has come over his fitness for the work. He has lost something, 
somehow.. His s}Tiipathies are not so keen as formerly ; his patience 
seems to be giving way; his prayers appear to be less fervent and 
effectual; some^vhere his net is breaking. He need not be greatly 
surprised at this. It may be simply a natural result of the long 
and continued strain which has been upon him. A wearied body 
and exhausted nerves vitally affect the spiritual condition. This 
was where Elijah's net broke. He who had withstood roA'alty with- 
out faltering, who had looked famine in the eyes without flinching, 
who had faced a mob of fanatical idolaters without fear, was hardly 
a man to run away at a woman's threat, even though that woman 
were the queen. He was tired out ; that was all ; or that was most, 
at least. The tension had been too long and too severe, and he 
had given way at last. You will remember that the very first thing 
that God did for him in the wilderness was to put him to sleep, and 
to give him plenty to eat when he woke up. After that it was easy 
enough to knit up the broken strand of courage. It is instructive 
to remember that our Lord himself felt the strain of constant effort, 
and the necessity of guarding against it in an especial manner. 
Those nights of lonely prayer ; the gloriou* visions of the Mount of 
Transfiguration ; the garden wrestling and victory — what were these 
but the mending of his nets, frayed in the daily fishing, for the 
fishing that must yet be ? Could he have endured the work except 
for those frequent withdrawals from the midst of it for personal 
communion with his Father ? Would Calvary's triumph have been 
possible without G-ethsemane's preparation ? 

Sometimes the nets are broken by contact with the sharp edges 



30 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

of the rocks of sin. So vital is thte relation between being and 
doing, that whatever affects what one is, affects also, and in the 
same way, what he does and can do. Sin indtilged in the heart 
means the lessening of spiritual efficiency, as well as the lessening 
of even the inclination toward spiritual effort. "If I regard in- 
iquity in my heart," says the Psalmist, "the Lord will not hear me.'^ 
"So, also," he might have added, "if I regard iniquity in my heart, 
men will not hear me; I forfeit my influence with them for good, 
and my chance to catch them for Christ. My sin has broken my 
net, and through the holes they escape me." How the illustrations 
of sin-torn nets thrust themselves into sight as we look down 
through history. It was the strand of faithi — that which seemed 
the strongest strand of all — that gave way once and again in the 
case of Abraham, and lost to him the reward, and to God the glory, 
of perfect trust and obedience. The thread of patience broke in 
Moses' net, and wearied and petulant at the unjust complainings of 
the people, he cried at Meribah, "Hear, now, ye rebels; must we 
fetch water out of this rock for you?" Wh'at sad work the sharp- 
edged reefs of unholy passion made with the nets of the Psalmist- 
king, and what a weary task of mending was his in consequence 
thereof.. When, on the night of the betrayal, Peter suddenly left 
the group of servants and soldiers in the palace of the high priest 
and rushed out into the night with the scalding tears in his eyes 
and the bitterest self-loathings in his heart, he was simply going out 
to mend the nets that his cowardice had just torn. 

But these are long ago examples. God help us all! We need 
not go so far away. Sin has torn our nets, yours and mine, time 
and again. Iniquity regarded in the heart, transgression practised 
in the life, have trammeled our activities, have hampered our 
efficiency, and have made us like fishermen casting ragged nets into 
the mocking waters. Some of us are saying with Isaiah, "My lean- 
ness ! my leanness !" recognizing our poverty in result and success, 
and sincerely deploring it as grievous misfortune, when we ought 
to say, rather, "My sinfulness ! my sinfulness !" thereby confessing 
the real cause and the adequate reason for such poverty. 

But perhaps oftenest the nets of the Christian suffer because of 
lack of use. You need not wear a net out by constant service. You 



NET MENDING. 31 

need not cut it to pieces. Just spread it out upon the ground, and 
let it alone for the sun to shine upon it, and for the rain and the 
dew to fall upon it, and the mischief is done. By and by when you 
would use it, you will find that the elements have so rotted the 
threads that it is wholly unserviceable except it first be mended. 
That is natural law in spiritual things. That which is used is kept; 
that which is not used is lost. Use is preservation; non-use is de- 
struction. Over against the danger of wearing out by too much 
toil, we may set the far greater, and much more present peril, of 
rusting out, or rotting out, by too little. There are very few of us 
whose powers have been lessened by overmuch strain put upon them. 
The great trouble with most of us is that the nets have hung so 
long idle that we scarce know now how to use them, nor even 
whether they can be used successfully or not. The mending, for 
some of us, would mean a radical making over of the entire web, 
so thoroughly have the influences of neglect done their work of 
destruction. 

2. Nets must be mended, for the Lord's fishing must be done.. 

"I will make you fishers of men,'' he said to the disciples of old. 
The commission has not been revoked, nor the promise withdrawn. 
It is our business to catch souls for Christ. It is surely no justifi- 
cation to plead torn nets as reason for lack of efiiciency and success. 
It will hardly be accepted as valid excuse by him who has a right to 
"every service we can pay," to say, "I am not prepared to do thy 
work ; I am not in the proper frame of mind, or the right spiritual 
mood. I'm very sorry that it is so, but it is so." But why are we 
not prepared ? And if we are not, why do we not make the needful 
preparation at once ? These are questions which are pertinent and 
pressing, and for which there is but one answer. If we are not 
ready for the work of the Lord, it is our business to get ready ; and 
that, too, without wasting time or words over it. 

Now, this net-mending, to hold to the terms of the text a little 
longer, is to be a practical, rather than a sentimental, matter. I 
presume that the one thought in the minds of James and John was 
to make their nets strong and whole again, and to get them into the 
water as soon as possible. That certainly must be our one thought 
and aim. There might be a temptation to dawdle over the task; 



32 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

to see what fine work we can do ; how skilfully we can cover up the 
break, and how nearly like new we can m'ake the net look when done. 
There is unquestionably such a temptation in that for which we are 
making the net-mending to stand. A prominent member of a 
church said to me not long ago, "Our young people's society has 
been so busy for the last three years consecrating itself that it has 
not had time to do anything else.'' I do not know the facts about 
that particular society; but I have seen just that to which reference 
was made in societies, and in churches, and in individuals. There 
are a great many people in this world who have been for more than 
three years trying to get ready to do something for the Lord, but 
who have done nothing jei; perhaps never will, ^et-menders, but 
not net-users ; sewers of nets, but not fishers of men. 

Within sight of my summer home, one year, were two houses, 
both in course of erection. One was begun early in the season, 
and was rapidly pushed to completion. Before snow^ flies, it was 
all ready for occupancy. The other was begun years ago; is 
tc-day without chimneys, or inside doors, or most of the conveni- 
ences of living, and will be finished — nobody can guess when. Its 
owner is building it himself, and does a little work on it each 
summer, but so little as to be scarcely appreciable. He doesn't care 
to complete it, for he finds his pleasure in the mere act of building. 
When some one said to him, "You'll never finish your house in your 
lifetime," he merely laughed, and replied, "Then somebody else 
will." Yet he can honestly say that he is at work upon it, getting 
it ready to live in. I am thinking of those houses as I write these 
words. They illnstrate to me two processes that may be seen in 
almost every church. — a preparing for God's work that never gets 
beyond the stage of preparation ; and a preparing which uses every 
facility for getting the most thoroughly ready in the shortest pos- 
sible time, and once ready, merges preparation immediately into 
active service. Mend your nets, when they need it, as quickly and 
aor. thoroughly as possible; not for the nets' sake, but for the fish- 
ing's sake. And when they are mendicd, don't stop to admire the 
perfection of yoiir work upon them, l)ut "laimeh out into the deep, 
and let them down for a draught." Many a cliurch has missed the 
gracious revival blessings that seemed just within reach because its 



NET MEXDIXG. 33 

members spent the time in making elaborate preparations to receive 
them. Many a Christian is missing his crown of efficiency and 
power, because in cnltivating what he calls a readiness and willing- 
ness to do the Lord's work, the actual work itself is nntonched and 
undone. Only and ever mending nets ; never using them. 

You have understood my meaning from the beginning, I think; 
it has been but thinly disguised under the imagery drawn from the 
text. Often the soul gets out of condition; the life becomes un- 
spiritual or less spiritual than usual; the world gets control in 
thought and affection; and the man is no more fit to do the work 
to which he is sent forth than is the fisherman ready to fish whose 
net is tattered and ragged. Often there must be a most careful 
and painstaking preparation of soul ; a breaking mth sin ; a quicken- 
ing of spiritual sympathies; a streng-thening of faith; a toning up 
of the w^hole life; before there can be any reasonable assurance of 
success in any undertaking for Christ. Net-mending, we have 
called it; and the designation seems apt. De we need it? Or are 
we all ready for the Master's use? Let us overhaul our nets and 
discover their real condition. But let us be careful that we do not 
confound the getting ready for wQrk with the actual doing of the 
work., It was necessary, doubtless, for the sons of Zebedee to mend 
their nets that day, but a perpetual mending of nets would have 
brought them no fare of fish. For that they must use the mended 
nets. He who said to the disciples of old, "I will make you fishers 
of men," says to-day to his church — ^to you and me — "Launch out 
into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.'' It is a call 
to immediate action. Let not obedience be delayed under pretence 
of getting ready to obey. Net-menders we all must be who would 
catch souls for Christ, but not net-menders always and only. Net- 
users, too, as the sons of Zebedee were, else we shall take no spoil 
of our endeavors. 



34 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

II 

THE GOSPEL, THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION 



By Rev. William Hurlin", 

New Hampshire 

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of Grod 
unto salvation to every one that believethj to the Jew first, and also to the 
Greek."— Rom. 1: 16. 

IN the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we read that 
when Stephen was stoned, "the witnesses laid down their clothes 
at a young man^s feet, whose name was Saul." And in the next 
chapter we read, "As for Sanl, he made havock of the church, enter- 
ing into every house and, haling men and women, committed them 
to prison.'^ Later in the book, we learn that under the direction of 
the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul were set apart for a special 
work, and they went on a missionary tour through Asia Minor, 
preaching everywhere that Jesus is the Christ, and that men can 
bo saved only through him. And we find afterwards that "Saul, 
who also is called Paul," went to Philippi and other places in 
Europe, and everywhere urged men to believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ that they might be saved. How can we account for the same 
man being engaged in such opposite employments? Only in this 
way — that while he was "yet breathing out threatenings and 
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord," and was on his way 
to Damascus to continue his persecutions, Jesus met him in a 
miraculous way, convinced him that he was the Christ, and led him 
to ask sincerely, "Lord^ what wilt thou have me to do ?" And from 
that time his whole character and course were changed, so that he 
could afterwards say, "Christ iiveth in me, and the life which I 
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." And 
he not only preached, but wrote extensively, as I believe, under the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and among the things which he 



WILLIAM HURLIN, of Antrim, N. H., was born in London, England, 
July 31, 1814. As the oldest child, he had to leave school when he was ten 
years of age that he might help his parents to provide for their large family, 
and from that time his studies Avere continued in private. From his early 
childhood he was a great reader, and when he was fifteen years old, in addi- 
tion to numerous books of biography, history, travels, and religious maga- 
zines, he had read Josephus, Plutarch's Lives, Rollin's Ancient History, 
eight volumes, and Hartwell Home's Introduction to the Critical Study and 
Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, three volumes. He does not remember 
the time when he was not the subject of deep religious impressions, and he 
believes that when he was twelve years old he had a personal knoAvledge of 
salvation through Jesus Christ. When he was eighteen he became a church 
member, and before he was twenty-one he preached his first sermon, and for 
five years was a lay preacher in London and vicinity, earning his living by 
secular employment, and preaching gratuitously on Sundays and sometimes 
on week evenings. 

In April, 1840, he became a London city missionary, and labored for 
nine years in one district with encouraging success. Tlien the failure of his- 
health made a change necessary, and with his wife and five children he came 
to this country, landing in New York in August, 1849. For six years he 
was a Freewill Baptist pastor, and in September, 1855, he united with the 
Baptist church in Amesbury, Mass., and was pastor of Baptist churches in 
Maine and New Hampshire until October, 1878, when he relinquished the 
pastorate that he might rest, but two weeks afterwards he was elected sec- 
retary of the New Hampshire Baptist Convention. After twenty-two years 
of service he relinquished this position in October, 1900, and a handsome 
gold watch and chain was presented to him as a testimonial of appreciation 
of his services. 

For fifty years he has written extensively for secular and religious pa- 
pers, magazines, and quarterlies. Among his contributions to the last named 
are "Man, Conscious Between Death and the Resurrection," in the Freeivill 
Baptist Quarterly; "The Angel Jehovah," in the- Christian Review; "The 
Apostle Paul," in the Baptist Quarterly; and "Missionary Work in London," 
in the Bihliotheca Sacra. He has also written seven tracts for the American 
Baptist Publication Society. 
(36) 



THE GOSPEL, THE POTVEE OE GOD UXTO SALYATIOX. 37 

wrote were the words of my text, ^'I am not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." We have 
in the text : 

I. A declaration as to personal feeling — ^'I am not ashamed of 
the gospel of Christ."^ 

1. TVhat is the gospel? The word comes from "God's spell'' — 
that is, the story of God; hence, "good news,'' "'glad tidings." It is 
the statement of the fact that God loves men, and that, viewing men 
as sinners, and therefore lost and mined, he had arranged a plan 
by which, consistently with his holy and righteous nature and 
character, he could save men from their lost condition and bring 
them hack to himself; that, in accordance with this arrangement, 
"the Word, who was in the beginning with God," and who "was 
God, * H« * ^^.g raade flesh, and dwelt among us," and 
finally died on the cross "for our sins, according to the scriptures, 
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day," and, 
after showing himself to his disciples a number of times, he 
ascended into heaven; and that now nothing hinders the salvation 
of any man or woman but personal rejection or neglect of this way 
ol deliverance from sin and its consequences. 

2. Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the gospel. We are 
ashamed of many things that we have advocated and have been 
connected with. We know that some of them have been sinful, and 
that others of them have been unwise. We do not wish that persons 
should know of our connection with these things, and when we are 
aware that they do know them, we wish that we had never had any- 
thing to do with these things; but, as we cannot undo the past, we 
wish that we could forget them and blot them from our memory, so 
that they should never more come into our minds. But Paul was 
not ashamed of the gospel. There was nothing unwise or foolish 
about that; but in a special manner it displayed "the wisdom of 
God," as well as his mercy and loving kindness. Many of the plans 
we make have reference to trifling and unimportant things ; but the 
gospel aims at the highest and most weighty matters in connection 
with the condition and well being of mankind. Many of our plans 
and arrangements end in failure, sometimes after the utmost care 



38 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.- 

and consideration on our part. But the gospel accomplishes every- 
thing that is proposed in connection with it when its terms are com- 
plied with; and there has never been a case of failure. There was 
good reason then w^hy Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, and there 
will never be any reason for us to be ashamed of it. This leads us to 

11. An affirmiation with reference to the gospel; — "It is the power 
of God unto salvation." 

1. What is salvation? There are different opinions and many 
mistakes on this subject. I believe that the salvation made known 
in the gospel includes 

( 1 ) Deliverance from the guilt and from the power of sin. With 
many persons the idea of sin is a matter that is left very much in 
the background. They seldom speak of it. And they seem to 
regard it as an intangible something, they hardly know what.. If 
there is an}i;hing to it, it is a something that all men inherit, or are 
under the influence of in some way. But, whatever it miay be, it is 
evidently something we cannot help; and therefore it is of very 
little consequence. But the Bible speaks of sin as something tangi- 
ble and very real; something that we have done, and that we have 
personally and individually chosen to do, in opposition to the will 
of God; and that therefore sin involves guilt — personal guilt — and 
that implies danger, because God is holy and righteous, and his law, 
which w^e break when we sin against him, "is hol}^^ and just, and 
good." And then sin has become habitual to us. It has entwined 
itself about us, and has become a part of our nature, so that we are 
under its control. But the salvation brought before us in the 
gospel includes deliverance both from the guilt and the power of 
sin. Through Jesus Christ we are justified, and are treated as if 
we had not sinned ; and therefore we are no longer under condemna- 
tion ; and, as we have become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are 
rescued from the power of sin and we are free to do the will of God. 
Salvation includes 

(2) Eeconciliation to and friendship with God. In our natural 
condition we are in opposition to God, and our sins have separated 
between us and him. He is not in our thoughts, and vre have no 
desire to please him. He still loves us, and wishes to bless us, but 
our attitude towards him prevents our receiving from him the bless- 



THE GOSPEL, THE POWER OF GOD UXTO SALVATION". 39 

ings he would gladl}' bestow. But wlien we are saved "we are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ," the "wall of partition'^ between us and 
God is "broken doT\Ti/' and we are not only reconciled to him, but 
we know that he is our faithful and our unfailing friend, and "we 
love him because he first loved us." Salvation includes 

(3) Adoption into the family of God. 'Not satisfied with de- 
livering us from the guilt and power of sin ; not content with being 
reconciled to us, and manifesting his friendship for us ; God actually 
adopts us into his family. "As many as received him' (Jesus 
Christ), to them gave he power to become the sons of God," and 
"the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are 
children of God." Hence we have the certainty that God will care 
for us, and will guide us safely through this life, whatever trials 
and difficulties ma}^ come in our way, and he will also receive us to 
eternal blessedness in the world to come. For, "if children, then 
heirs; heirs of God, and Joint heirs with Christ." And as "he hath 
begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead," we know that nothing "shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our 
Lord." 

2. The gospel accomplishes all this because "it is the power of 
God unto salvation." The Holy Spirit quickens the soul which is 
•^dead in trespasses and sins," and leads it to new thoughts and 
desires. Just how this is done we do not know. But from the 
Scriptures, and from personal experience, we know the fact. And 
from this beginning, the Holy Spirit leads, teaches, and helps us 
in turning from darkness to light, and in accepting Jesus Christ 
as our own and our personal Saviour ; and then he continues to lead 
us, he helps us to pray, he assists us in understanding the Scriptures, 
he teaches us what is the will of God, and helps us to do that will 
and to resist any inclination to set up our own wills in preference 
thereto. And in these, and in other ways, the gospel is proved to 
be "the power of God unto salvation." We have 

III. An asseveration as to the efficiency of tlue gospel — "To every 
one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 

1. What difference can believing make? Of what consequence 



40 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

is it whether I believe or not? I have been asked these questions 
many times, and therefore I answer them here. 

(1) Look at them in the light of common things. There are a 
few cases in which my belief or unbelief will make no difference as 
to results. For instance, if I believe that to-morrow will be a fair 
day, or a cloudy, or a stormy one, my opinion will make no differ- 
ence at all in the matter, which is altogether outside of my influence 
or control. But in most common things my belief or unbelief 
makes a great difference. For instance, I drink a liquid which I 
think is water. But one who knows, tells me it is poison. If I 
believe him, I shall be willing and desirous to drink at once an anti- 
dote to rescue me from the consequences of my mistake.. But if I 
do not believe him, I shall do nothing, and the poison will have an 
opportunity to do its work, and perhaps the result may be a fatal 
one. Or a physician tells me that some serious disease is taking 
hold of me, and that I ought to take immediate steps to prevent its 
getting a firmer hold upon my system. If I believe him, I shall 
at once act in accordance with his advice, and I may thus escape 
from serious consequences. But if I do not believe him, I shall 
leave the disease to progress and extend its influence, and this will 
lead to pain and suffering, and perhaps an earlier death than was 
necessary. Other illustrations might be readily given to show that 
in common things, believing or not believing makes a very great 
difference as to results. But 

(2) In the question of salvation, faith is the essential thing. 
God makes it the condition on which he bestows salvation upon us. 
H.ence Jesus said, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." 
And again, "He that believeth on him (the Son) is not condemned; 
but he that believeth not is condemned already, hecanse he hath not 
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." And we 
can readily see that in the nature of things, faith on our part is 
necessary to salvation. God has made full provision for our de- 
liverance from sin and its consequences, and for bestowing upon 
us the other blessings connected with salvation. But a sinner can- 
not be saved without a personal trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, 
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not 



THE GOSPEL, THE POWER OE GOD UNTO SALVATION. 41 

perish, but have eternal life/' Just look at the circiimstaiices of 
those to whom Jesus referred. They were bitten by the serpents, 
and it was certain that they would die, unless G-od interposed in 
their behalf. He directed Moses to place a serpent of brass upon a 
pole, and said "that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon 
it shall live." And those who looked did live. But if any one of 
the Israelites would not believe that he could be healed by looking 
at the brazen serpent, he did not look at it, and therefore he was 
not healed; for faith, indicated by looking, wa^ necessary to the 
cure. And so those who do not believe that Jesus can or will save 
them do not look to him, and they are not saved. But salvation is 
assured 

2. "To every one that believeth." (1) Temporal blessings and 
advantages are often limited in their bestowal, and are partial in 
their application. Many of them are limited to certain periods, 
to certain countries, and to certain persons. We who live at this 
time have privileges and opportunities which those who lived in 
former times did not possess. Some countries have blessings and 
advantages which other countries do not have. And in every time, 
and in every country, some persons have benefits and favors which 
others do not obtain. But in the text we are told (2) Salvation 
is assured "to every one that believeth." But what is believing? 
Is it mere assent to certain truths and statements ? Certainly not. 
Much more than mere assent is necessary. The faith that secures 
salvation implies on the part of the believer a sense of personal and 
pressing need. The man must know that he is a sinner, that he 
needs salvation, that he cannot save himself, and that no fellow 
being can save him. He must have knowledge of the facts that 
Jesus died for sinners, and that he said, "Him that cometh to me 
I will in no wise cast out." And he must exercise personal trust in 
Christ, and depend on him for salvation. 

(3) "To every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to 
the Greek." The Jew had had special religious privileges ; but he 
had neglected them, and therefore he needed salvation. The Greek 
had worshipped idols, and had been lax as to moral purity, and he 
also needed salvation.. And Paul declared that it was provided for 
both of them, and could be had by each of them. And so for the 



42 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

counterparts of these in the present day. Those who have been 
trained religioiisl}', and have maintained good moral characters, 
need salvation, because they have set up their own wills in prefer- 
ence to God's will, and thus have sinned against him. And those 
who have been brought up in ignorance, and perhaps have been 
immoral in their conduct, are sinners, and they need salvation. And 
here in the text we are told that "the gospel of Christ * * * 
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to 
the Jew first, and also to the Greek." So it is a full and a free 
salvation to every one who is willing to receive it. 

In conclusion, I ask each one. Have you personally experienced 
the power of the gospel ? And do you know that you have redemp- 
tion through the blood of Jesus Christ, even the forgiveness of sins ? 
If you can answer both these questions affirmatively, be thankful, 
and show your gratitude by daily living to the glory of God and by 
seeking to lead others to see their personal need and to receive for 
themselves the salvation offered to them in the gospel. 

But if you have not believed the gospel, and therefore are not 
enjoying its privileges, I ask. Why not? Y'ou need salvation, and 
you must be lost forever unless you obtain it. You have sinned 
against God. You are now sinning against him. And yet he loves 
you. "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," to save 
you. And this salvation is offered to you. And you may have it 
now. Do not neglect it any longer. Delays are dangerous. But 
"now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." 



FRED ELMER MARBLE, the son of Mr. Albert B. cand Mrs. Frances 
Hunt Marble, was born at Honoeye FalLs, N. Y., June 21, 1861. His early 
childhood was spent in Pittsford, N. Y., Avliere he was converted at the age 
of fourteen, and decided to study for the ministry two years later. He was 
licensed to preach by the Baptist church at Pittsford, N. Y., February 11, 
1882. He graduated from Cook Academy, Montour Falls, N. Y., in the class 
of 1883; from the University of Rochester in the class of 1887, and from 
the Rochester Theological Seminary in the class of 1890. In the spring of 
1887 he began preaching as stated supply of the First Christian Church at 
Orangeport, N. Y., and continued preaching throughout his seminary course, 
serving the Lyall-Avenue Mission for one year and many other churches for 
shorter periods. 

On July 4, 1890, he accepted a call from the First Baptist Church of 
Wallingford, Conn., and entered upon the pastorate August 10th. The 
church was at low ebb, in debt, and discouraged. ]Mr. Marble left it seven 
years later completely reorganized, entirely out of debt, considerably in- 
creased in membership, happily united, and in excellent financial condition. 

In September, 1894, Mr. Marble entered the Philosophical Department 
of Yale University, and completed his cour-se in 1897, presenting a thesis on 
"The Priesthood in Israel," and receiving the degree of Doctor of Philoso- 
phy. He resigiied at Wallingford, Conn., July 4, 1897, in order to go abroad 
for rest and study. After attending lectures at the LTniversity of Berlin, 
Germany, during the winter. Dr. and Mrs. Marble made an extended tour 
of the Continent, returning to America the following summer. 

The First Baptist Church of Brattleboro, Vt., extended him a call, and 
Dr. Marble entered upon the pastorate December 4, 1898. His ministry 
there has been attended with great success. He has a strong personality, 
is an earnest worker, and conscientiously devoted to what he believes to be 
right. Outside of the church. Dr. Marble has been prominently identified 
with temperance work and that of the young people, as well as with educa- 
tional matters and all questions pertaining to the moral well-being of the 
community. 

On December .3, 1890, he was married to Miss Adeline L. Morris, of 
Wallingford, Conn., and has reason to say that "a good wife is from the 
Lord." 

(43j 




ME^, F^Ei ELiE[^ Mkmit f^. 1= 



THE BREADTH OF REDEMPTION. 45 

III 

THE BEEADTH OF EEDEMPTIOK. 



By Eev. Fred Exmer Marble, Ph.. D., 

Vermont 

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to 
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest 
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of 
God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by 
reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature 
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glo- 
rious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but 
ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to-wit, the redemption of 
our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; 
for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that 
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." — Rom. 8 : 18-25. 

WE stand between two eternities — eternity past and eternity 
future. Our life is made up of yesterdays and to-morrows. 
Our experiences grow out of that which has been into that which 
is to be. !N"o day and no experience can be justly estimated by itself. 
All must be taken in connection with the causes which have pro- 
duced it and the results which grow out of it. Life^, to be worth 
living, must have larger circles of vision than the round of daily 
duties. Nor will the full period of three-score years and ten suffice 
to solve the problem of our existence. Only in the cycles of an 
endless eternity may we hope ever to discover the purpose and end 
of God's work in creation. I do not wonder that men, from whose 
eyes life and immortality are hidden, take pessimistic views of life 
and are impatient with its pain and suffering. For only on the 
broadest possible lines and in relation to God^s purposes of redemp- 
tion can any man understand the history of the world or be recon- 
ciled to the day of his birth. And even then there is little satis fac- 



46 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tion in the lower planes of spiritual attainment, for the inability 
to get broad views throws minor irregularities into prominence so 
that the wide sweep of the scene is lost in a consideration of d^etails. 
As in viewing a stretch of country, the detailed examination 
would reveal many steep ascents and sharp declivities, many barren 
hill-tops and marshy places, but the same when viewed from some 
far eminence would be so softened by the mellow light that the 
rugged rocks would take on a roundness, the hill-sides seem but 
gently sweeping curves, the dusty highway a thread of gold, and 
the marshy places like the luxurious velvet of the Orient. With 
rapturous admiration we exclaim. How beautiful! All forgetful 
that the very ruggedness of the hills and the ooze of the marshes 
have made the scene what it is. 

As with landscape, so with human history. The minute study of 
any period reveals little else than war and bloodshed, social discon- 
tent and political revolution, but, if from the elevation of sixty 
centuries we take in the whole range of human history, we are im- 
pressed, not so much with the petty jealousies of any tribe or nation 
as with the thought that through the ages one increasing purpose 
runs. A proper view, then, of any life or period requires distance, 
the right point of view and a suitable elevation. To some such 
Pisgah-top would I lead you this morning in hope that the breadth 
of view may lend to the prospect a harmony never before realized. 

Care is needed, however, lest we exalt the spiritual at the expense 
of the material; for, while spirit is all-important, God does not 
count it an unworthy thing to dwell immanently in matter. We 
must, therefore, recognize the essential good in material organiza- 
tion, as well as the reality of spiritual substance, in order to get 
an adequate conception of God's work in creation and redemption. 
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." "He 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life." "Man became a living soul," having access to 
"the tree of life" ; but in an evil hour yielded to the tempter, and 
brought upon all creation the legitimate penalty of his disobedience. 
That living soul was banished from the garden ; that immortal body 
was made subject to death, and the paradise of God henceforth 
yielded thorns and thistles in place of its natural fruitage. A dark 



THE BREADTH OF REDEMPTION. 47 

picture, indeed, but not without its ray of liglit, for the' Eternal 
Son, from the foundation of the world, took upon himself the 
penalty of man^s disobedience, thereby providing a redemption co- 
extensive with the fall. As sin cast its withering blight over soul 
and over body and over ground, so redemption, to be complete, must 
buy back all these from their thraldom. 

I. THE RESTORATION" OF THE SOUL 

Upon the restoration of the soul there is practical unity of belief 
in Christendom. x\ll are aAvare that the rebellion of man did not 
result in immediate destruction. Instead of well-merited punish- 
ment, there was given him a revelation of the Divine forbearance. 
The trees of the garden may have refused shelter to that guilty soul, 
but the overshadowing mercy of Jehovah protected him from the 
impending wrath. True, he forfeited all his high privileges, but 
his life was spared, and in this it is evident that God^s displeasure 
was not so much with the sinner as with sin. Accordingly, while sin 
was to be overcome, the sinner was given a chance : 

1. To return to the favor of Ms Creator. 

This it was that saved the first father of our race from despair 
as he compared his primal estate with his fallen condition. The 
dim foreshadowings of prophecy pointed to an expiation of his sin. 
The way was not 3^et manifested, but as the first blush of the 
morning is an earnest of the coming dawn, so do these early intima- 
tions of prophecy betoken the coming of him who should bring life 
and immortality to light. "The flame of a sword which turned 
every way'^ may yet ^T^eep the way of the tree ^ ^ ^ i^l the 
midst of the garden," but the Eedeemer of mankind has in himself 
and for his people "the power of an endless life." 

This is not simply that God will cease to regard man as a sinner, 
but that man will be restored to tJie companionship of God. In the 
Mosaic account of man's first estate we see him in familiar converse 
with his Lord. What might have been said I do not know, only 
this, that whatever occupied their thought was a matter of common 
interest. Man's mind ran along the channels worn by the thought 
of God. As in our friendships, there is need of similar qualities 
and dispositions, so as the basis of this relation man possessed quali- 
ties of mind and heart that made him the friend and associate of 
God himself. 



48 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Companionship restored is accompanied by the return of God's 
confidence in man forfeited by transgression. Not infrequently we 
speak of our confidence in God, but this other thought of God's 
confidence in man is less familiar. Yet it is true, for untrust- 
worthy as he proved and undeserving as he is, we are assured that 
he will be treated as though he had faithfully kept the charge of the 
Lord in caring for the garden. 

And this friendship can but result in a fuller realization of that 
love which led to its first bestowal. Not that God ever ceased to 
love — this is only the human way of putting it — but that the with- 
drawing of his presence seemed to be the end of his regard. Not 
so, for that j^earning in the heart of God for fallen man sought out 
a new manifestation of itself in a scheme of redemption whereb}^ he 
might win us to himself. 

2. But this is not all, for man has the added opportunity of 
regaining his moral character. When God breathed into man's body 
the breath of life he was endowed with the image of his Creator; 
that is, possessed of similar moral attributes. The face of God was 
his mirror, and the heart of the Eternal the source of his life ; but 
when sin entered this image was defaced, and the streams of energy 
which bore the life on to God returned in their courses and carried 
the soul from its moorings into the wide sea of open rebellion. How 
completely this moral character has been lost is seen in the depraved 
tastes and vulgar affections of the human heart. Any one who may 
ever have tried even to regain a lost reputation knows something of 
the difficulty of the undertaking, while the hopeless task of recon- 
structing the moral character may well bring the stoutest heart to 
despair. Yet, in spite of this, the Divine image may be recovered 
by every seeker after truth. With man's consent God gives a new 
bent to the disposition and new affections to the soul. These lead 
him back to the primal sources of his being and develop in him those 
qualities of justice, mercy, and love which enter into the moral like- 
ness of God in man. 

Whatever man may have lost in the fall, there is one thing that 
he gained, namely, the power of moral discrimination. Adam was 
innocent. Satan promised him a knowledge of good and evil. Be- 
tween this and man's former condition there was a greater difference 



THE BREADTH OF REDEMPTION. 49 

than between cMldhood and old age. The child^ not knowing good 
and evil and protected by the mother's care, does not appreciate the 
difficulty of living, but when three-score years and ten have added 
their store of experience there is a new view of life., The innocent 
regard of all things as good conies to be supplanted by a knowledge 
oi their real character, and the ready acceptance of everything that 
conies within reach gives place to a consideration of the merits of 
the thing presented. In any case, every act is preceded by a volun- 
tary exercise of the will, but in man the choice is intelligent, whereas 
in the babe it is but instinctive. The one belongs to a higher state 
of development than the other. So in moralities this same distinc- 
tion may be made. Innocence, in a certain sense, is the freedom 
from the imputation of crime or wrong. This surely belonged to 
the newly created man, but it seems to me that he was also innocent, 
i. e., did not have an experimental knowledge of the real character 
of evil. There was a lack of this sort of knowledge, but from the 
moment of disobedience the knowledge of evil became a new and 
constant factor in human experience. Henceforth, man is not to be 
regarded as, in any sense, innocent, nor does the restoration of the 
soul imply that man may regain more than freedom from the 
imputation of guilt; for he knows evil, and he will know it forever. 
Kor is this freedom from sin a thing bestowed any more than an 
e:sperience wrought out. True, man is justified by faith, but he is 
to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. As knowl- 
edge supplants the innocence of childhood, the power of discrimina- 
tion is developed and issues in intelligent choice, so the knowledge 
of evil supplanted means innocence with the power of moral dis- 
crimination and issues in moral righteousness — a state of being 
vastly superior to that in w^hich man was created. This is something 
that could not have been gained by a fulfilment of the la.w. It is 
the resultant of two forces — the repellant force of evil and the 
attractive power of the good, and brings a righteousness "which is 
of God by f aith.'^ 

■ Herein also comes an appreciation of the intrinsic worth and 
leauty of the Divine life. The child may have a tender regard for 
the mother and trust its little life implicitly to her keeping, but that 
deep sympathy with her and that great reverence for her comes only 



50 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

when the beauties of her life and the excellencies of her character 
are seen in the light of similar experiences. So Adam loved Ms 
Creator. In him was all that filial trust and confidence that belongs 
to the natural affection of the child for the parent. Perhaps it was 
more than that, but all will agree that Paul, that old hero of the 
faith, loved with an intelligence Adam' did not at first possess; for 
he knew the evil and overcame it. His whole nature went out, not 
from natural afi:ection merely, but from an intelligent appreciation 
of the excellencies of the Divine character, born of a fellowship in 
suffering. Did he not count all things but loss for the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord? and say truly 
that to live is Christ? In him the conflict with evil 
had resulted in so great a victory that the intelligent love 
of the man seems like the natural affection of the child in its eager- 
ness to seize and hold the object of its desire. Thus, is it God^'s 
purpose not merely to restore man, but to bring the objects of his 
mercy to a more exalted position than that from which they fell. 

II. THE REDEMPTION OE THE BODT 

The Wew Testament, however, is not satisfied with a bodiless 
immortality. It nowhere teaches that mind and body are to be 
forever separated, much less that either is to lose its identity. These 
two were joined together by Cod himself. The dust of the ground, 
a^^ well as the breath of life, entered into man^s composition. Both 
were involved in disobedience and suffered the penalty of a common 
curse. Any atonement, therefore, which aims at completeness must 
provide also for the redemption of the body. The text of the 
morning teaches not simply the restoration of the soul, but that they 
t ) whom it was written were waiting for their adoption, to-wit, the 
redemption of the body. The salvation of the soul furnishes an 
altogether inadequate conception of the expiatory offering of the 
Son of God. We must enlarge our thought until it includes the 
redemption of man's physical nature ; for 

1. God made the body as well as the soul.. It is true that this 
statement runs counter to some of the teachings of modern science, 
which would lead us to think that our bodies are but developed from 
an amorphous life through all the grades of being ; that the exquisite 
delicacy of organization and adaptation are but the preserved modi- 



THE BEEADTH OF EEDEAEPTIOX. 51 

fications of the centuries. Let those who will draw comfort from 
S"Dcli a pedigree I I prefer rather to stand with those who see in 
man^s body the expression of an heavenly wisdom and the workman- 
ship of a Divine artisan. 

2. Believing that God created man with greater physical perfec- 
tion than he has to-day, leads to the further claim that tlie tody is 
not less lionorahle than the spirit. One was fashioned by God's 
finger, the other bore the impress of his likeness : one was immortal 
by nature, the other given access to the tree of life that it might not 
suffer death. Both came from the same sonrce and were well pleasing 
to him who made them. They snstaia the relation of principal and 
agent. The body is but the medium whereby mind acts 
upon matter. It neither initiates thought nor action. Moral 
quality do^ not attach to its forms or functions, but, like the 
clay in the hand of the potter, it is fashioned for a vessel of dishonor 
b}' the passions and appetites which mold and shape it. As little 
blameworthy is the hand that drives a dagger to the heart of its 
victim as is the cold steel that is thus warmed in the Life-blood of a 
soul. It is the murderous spirit behind them both to which alone 
gnilt attaches and the desert of punishment. Whatever imperfec- 
tion or sin, therefore, pertains to man^s body is due not to its rela- 
tion to the* dust of the ground, but to its connection with a rebellious 
spirit whose faithful servitor it is. 

3. While it is true of all God's material creation that they are 
neither intrinsically evil nor dishonorable, the tody has been the 
recipient of more distinguished honor than they all, for •'the Word 
became flesh and dwelt among us.'' It was no angelic appearance 
which Christ took upon himself, but a human body with feet and 
hands, with wants and weaknesses, such as we c-all our own. Xot a 
new creation, withal, but having gotten its form and substance from 
the life of a virgin. It was not in the creation, but in the incarna- 
tion, that the body received its greatest honor. We speak of the 
Holy City becatise Christ worshipped there; of the Holy Land, be- 
cause it was the scene of his earthly life and ministry ; this is well, 
but if lands and cities are to be thus distinguished because of his 
transient sojourn, what shall I say of the honor bestowed upon the 
human form in view of his having made it a permanent dwelling- 



52 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

place ? Even if the body had been accursed, this inhabitation of a 
Divine Spirit would ever after have given the place of chief est honor. 

JSTor is this all, for it has hecome the temple of the Holy Spirit. 
Since the glory departed from the house that crowned Mt. Moriah, 
no place of man's building has been occupied by the Spirit of God. 
Our grand cathedrals, with nave and transept, massive pillars and 
fretted ceilings, are not so attractive as the humble and contrite 
heart of the penitent sinner opening for his reception. That which 
God has made, in which he dwells, to which he has wedded an 
immortal spirit, shall he not perfect it against the day of Jesus 
Christ? Access to the tree of life may be denied and this mortal 
body see corruption, but it is not a contemptible thing, for it was 
fashioned by God's finger and has become the place of his innermost 
dwelling. 

4. But the redemption of the body may be argued along an en- 
tirely different line, namely, the opposition of the Scriptures to a 
nahed spiritualism. "They seem to be in sympathy with that deeper 
philosophy which sees in the body not simply the sheath of the soul, 
but that side of our nature which belongs to its fuller expression.'^ 
Without a body the spirit may live, but only through the body can 
it ever come into possession of the facts and experiences of human 
life; and when you come to consider how the physical senses form 
and color our every thought, it cannot be that death, which is but 
the beginning of another life, will take away all the material ele- 
ments of our being. Kor is it in accord with Divine economy that 
we should spend our days accumulating knowledge through the 
medium of the physical senses, only to lay it all aside and be trans- 
formed into pure spiritual beings. As a body was necessary to life's 
fullest meaning in this world, so will it be in the world to come. 
Those cold and silent forms which we lay in the bosom of mother 
earth with so much of tenderness are not our friends. Neither are 
the spirits that return to God who gave them, but rather do we look 
forward with joyous anticipation to the time when those bodies 
shall be redeemed from the ground, reanimated by the escaping 
spirit, and made sensible of the changing phenomena of their new 
existence. This outward garnishing of the senses will be elevated 
to a higher plane. There will be perfect adaptation, new conditions, 



THE BREADTH OF EEDEMPTION. 53 

gnd n^w environments. Here we may expect that freedom from the 
limitations of mind and body which restrict onr activity and retard 
onr progress. Pain and death, those harsh destroyers of peace and 
happiness, will be sloughed off, and out of the dissolving elements 
of tlie physical man shall spring a body adapted to spiritual nses. 
The redeemed body will be spiritual, but not spirit. Eather will it 
be the material body purged from animal propensities, endowed with 
noble qualities, and fitted for a glorified state. "The Lord Jesus 
shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be con- 
formed to the body of his giory.'^ 

III. THE EEXEWAL OF THE EARTH 

But the immortal spirit clothed with a glorified body is only a 
partial redemption ; for "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
together in pain until now,'^ so that to complete the work of redemp- 
tion we must include also the renewal of the earth. 

The whole face of creation was changed by human sin. As it 
came fresh and fair from the hand of God it was suited for the 
dwelling-place of those whom he would create in his own image, 
^^^ery good'^ire the words pronounced not simply upon human kind, 
but upon mountain and valley and plain. For man's sake, that his 
surroundings might comport with his true character, nature was 
made "'subject to vanit}-^'; that is, turned aside from its original 
purpose and made subservient to ignoble ends. Like the bod}', it is 
devoid of moral quality, but has been dragged down by its association 
with sinful man. Even fallen nature's charms bafBe our powei*s of 
description; what then must have been the glorious beauty of that 
first creation before the beasts of the field were at enmity or ever 
the earth brought forth thorns and thistles ! Sensible of this, the 
apostle pictures the creation as being unwillingly subjected and as 
groaning in its bondage while it awaits the deliverance of the sons 
of God, knowing that this is the time appointed for its redemption. 
iJv'or is it simply expecting to be turned again to its natural uses, but 
rather to participate in "the liberty of the glory of the children of 
God.'' Blameless of wrong, the earth was cursed for Adam's sake. 
Shall not, then, the expiation of the second Adam abrogate the curse 
and stay the process of deterioration? Is it not a significant fact 
that when Christ submitted himself to the curse of God he was 



54 THE AMEKICAX BAPTIST PULPIT. 

crowned with thorns — the fruit of the curse as visited upon the 
ground ? for the groaning earth was in full sympathy with the tragic 
events taking place on Calvary's hill. The darkened heavens and 
the riven rocks had a profounder meaning than to deepen the im- 
pression made by the death of that despised ISTazarene. They were 
rather prophetic of that mighty regeneration out of which the earth 
shall emerge clear, fair, and beautiful as when first fitted up for the 
abode of innocency. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir 
tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree." "The 
wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad> and the desert shall 
rejoice and blossom like the rose.'' This is that new earth wherein 
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Through it flows 
the river of the water of life, and on the banks of the river is builded 
the new Jerusalem' for the habitation of the glorified bodies of the 
redeemed. 

Peace, then, to the accursed ground! for, in addition to the 
restoration of the soul and the redemption of the body, Christ pro- 
vides also for the renewal of the earth. 

Indeed, "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with glory that shall be revealed in us." These things 
are forgotten, and words fail us when we begin to realize the scope of 
Christ's work in redemption. 

"There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, and 
another glory of the stars," but redemption is the crowning glory of 
the universe. About it all God's purposes revolve; for it all his 
counsels were taken ; to it all his providences contribute. Its breadth 
includes mind and also matter; its length spans eternity, past and 
future; its depth fathoms the lowest abysses of misery and sin, and 
itfi height throws a flood of light upon the sovereign grace of 
Jehovah. A wonderful work is the work of redemption! Good 
news to the whole creation! For it includes a redeemed soul, a 
redeemed body, a redeemed earth canopied by a new heaven, from 
out whose solemn spaces swells a mighty anthem as "the voice of a 
great multitude and the voice of many waters and the voice of 
mighty thunder, saying. Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the 
Almighty, reigneth." 



GEORGE C. LOEniEE was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1838. His 
father died while he Wcis vet a babe. His step-father was manager of the 
Theatre Royal. The intention for some time was that young Lorimer should 
become an actor, but life behind the scenes did not appeal to him. When 
only fourteen years of age he became possessed of a love for the sea, and 
sailed before the mast up the Baltic. The sailors life did not satisfy him, 
and he was glad to return to his home and continue his studies. He tried 
his hand at carpentering, and later read medicine and law. But neither of 
these professions touched the deeper springs of his life. The turn in his 
career came when he had the opportunity to take a trip to the United States 
in 1855. He was led by a kind Providence to go to Louisville, Ky., and 
while there became deeply interested in the religious problems presented at 
the Walnut-Street Baptist Church. He united with that body, and imme- 
diately began preparations for the ministry. He had found what satisfied 
his longings. Accordingly he attended Georgetown College, and before 
graduation started out to preach. The South loved oratory, and Dr. Lori- 
mer was a natural orator. Revivals followed his efforts, and his success 
prompted him to pursue his studies further. He engaged tutors, and covered 
even more than is ordinarily allotted to a college course, at the same time 
keeping up his pulpit work. History and sociological questions he has 
made a special study ever since. His first charge was in Kentucky, where 
he married Miss Arabella Burford. Four children have entered their home, 
one son and three daughters. The son is George Horace Lorimer, editor of 
the noted Saturday Evening Post, published at Philadelphia. The civil war 
period found Dr. Lorimer in Louisville, but he threw his sympathy with the 
Union cause. In 1870 he was caHed to the Shawmut- Avenue Church, of 
Boston, and when Dr. Fulton left Tremont Temple he was immediately 
chosen as his successor. Chicago called him to build up the Baptist cause 
in 1879: he went and was instrumental in regaining much of the ground 
lost in previous years. In the midst of such arduous labors Dr. Lorimer's 
health broke down, and he was forced to go abroad. In 1891 he accepted 
his former charge in Boston, and in 1896 succeeded in rebuilding the Tem- 
ple. "The Minister at Tremont Temple," as Dr. Lorimer modestly terms 
himself, is fulfilling a mission at once unique and of wide influence. Tre- 
mont Temple does not claim to be an "''institutionar' church, nor does it 
assume to be pre-eminently popular. Rich and poor meet together for wor- 
ship and to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached. There are no sensa- 
tional methods to reach the people, and yet immense audiences of five 
thousand or more gather there each Sabbath. The site on which it stands 
is alone worth half a million of dollars, and the new Tremont Temple of 
five years ago was erected at a cost of another half a million. There is but 
one Tremont Temple in the world. Xew York has nothing like it. London 
has nothing like it. It is the greatest throne of preaching power on the 
globe. It is a sort of world's pulpit. Dr. Lorimer is the author of a num- 
ber of books widely useful in their Christian influence. In England he is 
so popular that he is invited each summer to preach in the great churches 
of London. 




1, m, I., LL 



CHRIST AXD CUEEEXT COXTEOYERSIES. 57 



IV 

CHEIST AND CUEEEXT CONTEOYEESIES 



By Geoege C. Lorimee, D. D., LL. D., 
Massaclrasetts 

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-bom of every creature; 
for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in the 
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or prin- 
cipalities or powers ; all things were created by him and for him ; and he is 
before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the 
body, the Church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that 
in all things he might have the pre-eminence." — Col. I: 15-18. 

ROBEET BEOWXIXG, in "Christmas Eve/' as interpreted by 
Frotheringham and William Orr, describes one — ^he does not 
say wbo;, but evidently one who sympathizes with the refined 
liberalism of onr age — driven by a storm into a chapel on the edge 
of a common, a poor place^ where the service is wretched and the 
worshippers vulgar. It is the evening preceding the morning 
observed in commemoration of that birth which has filled the earth 
with argument for two thousand years. The unwilling visitor is 
not pleased with amihing; the songs are unmusical, the supplica- 
tions commonplace, the sermon bald and trivial. Out he goes into 
the night and the tempest, wondering whether Christianity is 
credible any longer, and whether, after all, nature does not present 
the only temple, and its spacious firmament the only creed suf- 
ficiently expansive for the cultured intellect. As he meditates a 
great thing comes to pass. A double lunar rainbow appears in 
mystic splendor, and on its summit a figure, which by its '^Tiuman 
air'^ he recognizes as the Christ. The back of the Divine form is 
toward him as in reproof, and its motion is as if about to depart. 
But he lays hold of the robe of the Saviour, and explains that he left 



58 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tbe chapel merely to seek a grander worship and because of the 
pverence of his love. The face is then turned to him, and he is 
lifted in the folds of the vast vesture and is carried to St. Peter's 
at Eome. Crowds throng the venerable Basilica, devoutly waiting 
the notes of the silvery bell that announces the marvel of transub- 
stantiation. The Master enters there, to the surprise of his critical 
companion. How comes it that he can sanctify by his presence 
these strange rites and incoherent mysteries ? Can it be that part 
of his life and truth is there, notwithstanding these manifest super- 
stitions? As the inquirer reflects he is again caught up in the 
sacred garment, and is borne to the hall of a German professor, who 
is lecturing on the Christ-myth and learnedly showing how little of 
fact there is for Christianity to rest on. He does not enter the hall, 
but Jesus does. While he stays outside he hears the discourse from 
'^'the exhausted air-bell of the critic," and what he hears sets him 
thinking. He argues with himself, if Christ is not God, then the 
system that bears his name falls to the ground. N'either intellect 
nor goodness can give a man supreme right and authority over men. 
The teacher who conquers all secrets is only a teacher, not a 
creator, and has no absolute sovereigTity over the mind and life of 
others. But while he debates Jesus is inside the lecture-room. 
How can he remain there and countenance such assaults on his 
supremacy? The professor logically ought to say, "Throw away 
your faith now proven mistaken;" but instead he exhorts, "Keep 
your faith, venerate the myth, adore the man." Though he has 
destroyed the diamond by his chemical tests, be yet, most incon- 
sistently, entreats the scholars to wear the precious stone as a gem 
of light. And Jesus is within all this time, as though finding 
something good and just in this thin, pale man's talk. Wliat can 
he admire? the honest}'-, the sincerity of the speaker? Perplexed 
once more, the seeker begins to draw a lesson of easy tolerance, 
of indifference to every form of belief, of lazy benevolence without 
real conviction, when the storm begins afresh, and the Sacred Form 
turns grievingly away as though about to depart. E^ddently, then, 
he has not learnt the intended lesson, and the threatened with- 
drawal may mean to teach that the poorest belief is better than 
mild, colorless indifference. Confirming this surmise, he is again 



CHRIST AMD CUEEENT COXTEOVEESIES. 59 

wrapped in the vesture's ample fold, and suddenly finds himself in 
the poor little chapel once more. Had he ever really left it ? Had 
h? been dreaming? If a vision, what its significance, if not to 
remind him that the bald service and the paltry talk of the con- 
venticle, with all their taste of earthiness, may be a heavenly 
inspiration helping and bettering the vulgar congregation; and 
that any form of Christianity morally used as a way of life is 
grander and worth more than the finest, form of intellectual 
contempt. 

And, in addition to this, we may gather from the poem something 
of the real Christ that is to be found in all Christian creeds and 
woi^hips, and even in the spirit of reverence for truth that shines 
in the theories of many anti-sup ematuralists. The fact is, Jesus 
is too great a marvel, too many sided, for any one formula to 
exhaust his meaning. He is a flood of purest light, that is broken 
up by the prism of human thought, and these varied colors must be 
combined if his native grandeur is to be discerned and appreciated. 
And it is the business of the inquirer, and the mission of the 
Church, to seek the true image of the Saviour behind all the pris- 
matic refractions through which it eomes to the world, and by 
which it is more or less obscured. This the apostle assists us to 
do in the sublime language of our text. 

It is not easy to reproduce the exact state of things in Colosse 
which prompted Paul to write this epistle. Evidently various 
errors were in circulation. There is reason for supposing that the 
Gnostics of the East had disseminated among the disciples the view 
that matter is essentially evil, and was not created by Cod, but was 
the act of intermediate intelligencies separated more or less from 
the Divine. With this heresy there seems to have been combined 
another, and one logically destructive of the first; namely, too great 
a reliance on the efficacy of materialistic forms in worship. ISTor 
is their inconsistency singular. Xearly every school of thought is 
characterized by two aspirations which are mutually subversive. 
Thus philosophical materialism of last century was the champion 
ol liberty, and 3'et as a doctrine it necessitates fatalism. And now 
Darwinism recognizes the right of the strongest to survive, and yet 
Darwinists are the advocates of equality. The contradictions of 



60 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the Colossians were no graver than theirs. Luther has wittily 
likened humanity to a dTunken peasant on horseback, now inclining 
to one side and then reeling to the other. The figure is apposite; 
for not only are there oscillations toward irreconcilable ideas, but 
during the same period movements toward varying and antagonistic 
theories. Humanity may ride on during a particular epoch, alter- 
nating between materialism and idealism, insisting on both in the 
most incoherent fashion, and oblivious to the pleadings of outraged 
logic. 

PauPs method of treatment in the case of the Colossians is pe- 
culiar and instructive. Seeing that their errors obscured the nature 
and exalted station of the Christ, he realizes that clear and correct 
conceptions on these points must in their turn influence fundamental 
opinion, and determine for us what is truth regarding GTod, the 
universe, and destiny.. Hence the splendid passage, which I have 
chosen as the basis of my discourse, in which the spiritual grandeur 
of the Christ is made manifest, and is presented as the infallible 
test of the soundness or unsoundness of current controversies. 
I would imitate the example of Paul, that we may determine the 
value of certain phases of modern thought, and as a Church appre- 
ciate our present obligation and opportunity. 

FirstI — By the relation of Christ to the Father, as stated in the 
text, we gain an insight into the mystery of his existence, and find 
the answer of the Bible to Agnosticism. It is not unlikely that the 
Athenians had infected other cities of Greece besides their own 
with their notion of the "Unknown,^' to whom they had reared an 
altar. The Colossians may have sympathized with the doubt ex- 
pressed by that sombre altar, and may have questioned the reality 
and possibility of any Divine revelation. They may have argued, 
if creaturehood through the centuries had failed to disclose the 
Highest, what confidence could they repose in the professed dis- 
closures made by Jesus. But PauFs reply sets at rest misgiving; 
for he claims that the Nazarene was something more than a bearer 
of messages, more than an explorer daringly invading the unseen, 
and more than a happy genius whose guesses about the Almighty 
commend themselves to our judgment by their breadth and beauty. 



CHRIST AND CURRENT CONTROVERSIES. 61 

He is Mmself "the image of the invisible God-"; and as he himself 
taught, seeing him we have seen the Father also. 

It is strange how the mind constantly returns to the dreadful 
task of invalidating the ground of its knowledge. This is not only 
attempted by philosophy, but by science as well, the latter fre- 
quently so assailing the trustworthiness of our faculties as to under- 
mine its own deductions. For if the action of the intellect is unre- 
liable when it reports its own operations in the domain of religion, 
may it not be mistaken when it reports on the testimony of the 
senses in the dom'ain of the physical? Claparede in the name of 
science, and Fichte in that of philosophy, assume that the "ego" 
alone exists, and that the universe is but a projection of the "ego," 
a phantasmagoria which we ourselves create without suspecting it, 
believing all the while that we are only spectators. Hence, what 
wo call the objective world is but a subjective illusion, and existence 
may be considered a dream giving birth to dreams. As Amiel puts 
it, "Every fool is a cosmogonic part, producing the fire work of 
the universe under the dome of the infinite," and by a fatality of 
his nature, it would seem, must think his universe in identical 
terms with others. Huxley, to whom we are indebted for the term 
"Agnostic," imagines that religion alone suffers from what the 
nam^e denotes; but in this he is mistaken; for there is the previous 
question as to whether any kniowledge can approach to certitude, 
and whether, in such doubt, it is worth our while to seek any 
knowledge at all. Why shall not the dream of the ignorant on all 
subjects be as desirable as the dream of the learned? If it is 
answered that practical results justify the one and condemn the 
other, it may again be questioned whether these results themselves 
are not illusions, and that others, even the worst, would not be as 
attractive if pictured as beneficial by the imagination. By their 
own showing the advocates of Agnosticism are practically reduced 
to nothingness. "They shiver on the brink of the empty abysses 
of their inner being, stifled by longings for the unknown, consumed 
hj thirst for the infinite, and prostrate before the Hndiscoverable." 
They recall the Faust legend, and their ruling idea is Mephisto- 
phelean, tormenting with inextinguishable flame of desire and 
immuring in the painted chamber of incurable delusion., Multi- 



62 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tudes drift toward the h3'pothesis, not realizing whither it tends. 
They cackle nnmelodiously about "divine mind/' and "mortal 
mind/' and about the unreality of the real; and forced by their 
premises down the slippery steps, they come to regard moral evil as 
unreal as they regard bodily disease, and at last they esteem che 
drama of redemption as a mirage, as a mere seeming of Divine 
love in this world of seeming disaster. Thus the most vital of dis- 
tinctions are sacrificed, and for the sake of a fanciful hypothesis 
humanity is reduced to a shade, and is sent forth in pursuit of 
shadows in a world of mist, or rather in a void, shoreless and leading 
no whither. 

The apostle in the text recognizes the limitations of hu.man 
reason. God is not found out by intellectual processes. He is 
recognized primarily by native faith, and "faith is certitude without 
evidence." Proofs corroborative of his existence are furnished by 
mind, but the mind would seek no proof if the idea did not previ- 
ously assert itself. Here, however, its operations touch what ap- 
pears to be an impassable boundary. God is, it believes ; but what 
IS God ? That is the question which remains unanswered. Thought 
replies not, and even nature, when interrogated, gives only a hiero- 
glyphical response. Is he holy, is he just, is he love? Silence 
mocks us as it reigns in unbroken calm. Neither our agony nor 
our rage can force open the lips of the material universe and 
compel it to give up the secret of the moral attributes of that 
Power which called it into being. But, though man cannot dis- 
cover, God can reveal. In Christ the Invisible becomes visible, the 
Speechless one vocal, and the Divine nature is brought near to us in 
a form we can partially comprehend; for that form is brother to 
our own. The knowledge that comes in this way is undoubtedly 
incomplete, but it is at least valid. Pure theism is too phantom- 
like for it to satisfy; it can no more be leaned on than a mist- 
wreath, and it can no more warm the soul into devoutness than a 
moonbeam can unfold the flower of a plant. On the other hand, 
we cannot think a grander conception of God than Christ is in 
himself, nor can we imagine a Being morally his superior, or one 
who could as fully inspire us with lofty ideals of duty or impart 
to us strength in seasons of perplexity and sorrow. 



CHRIST AND CURRENT CONTROVERSIES. 63 

But what shall we say of the essential nature of Him who thus 
meets our longings, and who through eighteen centuries of religious 
reflection has remiained unsurpassed and unsurpassable ? The solu- 
tion of the enigma is suggested by Paul, when he inquires, "For 
what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man 
which is in him? even so, the things of God knoweth no man but 
the Spirit of Grod/' Mark well the limitations, man can only 
know what is in himself ; and in the same way the Divine can alone 
know what is in the Divine: therefore only can God reveal God. 
And as we linger over this profound truth, over the inability of the 
mere creature to disclose the Creator, the declaration of John 
flashes on us with new force: "In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the V/ord was God ; and the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt with man." What shall we say to this 
representation? Shall we drall its credibility by the idle cry, 
"mystery !" as though its inexplorable depths rendered it less reason- 
able to reason? Know we not that a religion without mystery is 
like a star without a halo, a flower without perfume, or an atmos- 
phere without ozone? 'No positive faith can survive the loss of 
belief in the supernatural which is the~very ground of its existence. 
Every historical cult diminishes in power in proportion as its dark- 
ness is dissolved or claimed to be dissolved into light. Christianity 
took possession of the masses through "the foolishness of the Cross" ; 
but when preachers have decried the mystery of the Incarnation, 
they have reduced the sufferings of the Cross to the commonplace 
of human anguish, and the}- have consequently been deserted as 
poets would be who should denounce poetry, or as women who 
should ridicule love. There is then no other alternative than this; 
we m.ust either subscribe to Agnosticism and so abandon the world 
to irreligion, or we must cherish the conviction that "God was 
manifest in the flesh," and so save mankind from ignorance and 
despair. 

Secondly — By the relation of Christ to the Universe, as expressed 
in our text, w^e obtain a view of the grandeur of his attributes and 
find the answer of Scripture to Materialism. A difficulty appears in 
the clause "first born of all creation," and yet, while it seems to 
include him in the "born," we are distinctly told that he is before 



64 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

all creation, and that lie is its agent, medium, its goal — the source 
of its support and the bond of its unity. This language assigns 
him a place in existence prior to the calling of the universe out of 
primeval chaos. Ellicott renders the doubtful phrase, "The first 
born before every creature," and similarly Braune translates it, 
"first begotten before every creature.'^ And in this connection 
John's statement may be quoted: "By him all things were made 
that are made, and without him nothing was made that is made." 
Undoubtedly in some sense Jesus is the only begotten Son of the 
Eternal Father, and, though we cannot precisely determine in what 
sense, we are assured of his antedating all worldfe, and of his supe- 
riority to angelic intelligencies. We cannot fail to see that the 
apostle places him in a rank and order exclusively his own, and 
sets over against it the entire system of the cosmos, animate and 
inanimate, and includes in it even the hosts that people the heavens. 
Never was enumeration more comprehensive or complete and ex- 
haustive. Paul's glance takes in the imm'ensity of God's Empire 
from centre to circumference, from its extreme boundary stone to 
the globe we inhabit, and then he penetrates the hidden forces and 
operations involved in the physical, and then rises in his sublime 
generalization to thrones and principalities, to the myriad cohorts 
of celestial beings who brighten the unseen, and having reached the 
climax, he subjects all to the ever glorious Son of the Father. 
Standing in full view of the seen and unseen splendor of the uni- 
verse, he declares that all things were made by him, and for him, 
and that through him all things consist. The apostle then would 
have us believe that Jesus is the source, the storehouse, and the 
stability of creation. As in him dwells the fulness of religious 
life to the Church, so, as in a reservoir, in him resides all creative 
energy. He originates, he maintains., He is the supply and sup- 
port, as well as the author of the cosmos, upholding as well as 
fashioning. 

And, as though this were not sufficient honor, it is added that he 
is the end or aim, the purpose and ultimate object of the existing 
"all things." This is a most remarkable statement, and teaches 
that the works of God, of every kind, contemplate spiritual designs 
and developments. Not only does it imply that the spiritual will 



CHRIST AND CURRENT CONTROVERSIES. 65 

shine through the material, but that the material is so arranged as 
to be the theatre for the display and unfolding of the spiritual as 
well. Here is not the remotest recognition of Pantheism, but 
mther a distinction fatal to that doctrine. God is not nature, nor 
is nature God; for he moves in it, and carries forward his high 
purposes through it, but he is not identical with it. Studied in the 
light of human history, the earth seems specially adapted and fitted 
to moral agents, affording conditions necessary to their training and 
discipline. The supreme evidence of which lies in the fact that 
moral issues have ever been back of the revolutions, agitations, and 
vicissitudes of the race from the beginning. These issues impart 
significance to the annals of the ages. Indeed, no less a scholar 
than Max Miiller goes farther, and says that history has had con- 
tinually to do with religion, and that, aside from religion, there 
is no history. Certainly since Christ appeared the movements and 
the progress of enlightened nations are closely allied to the Cross, 
and the drift of two thousand years is inexplicable apart from the 
Incarnation and Atonement. Clearly, then, the apostle has good 
reason for the saying, "that all things were made^^ for the Ee- 
deemer; and when we see that in our day printing, electricit}^, 
navigation, exploration of new lands and the intercommunication 
of ancient races contribute to the advancement of his empire, we 
have excellent reasons for concurrence in his faith. But how 
transcendently wonderful must be the attributes of a Being of 
whom these things in truth can be affirmed. Such effects must 
have adequate causes, and judged by the effects the causes must 
border on the infinite. It seems impossible to stop short of infinite 
wisdom to contrive infinite power to execute, infinite benevolence 
to beautify, and infinite holiness to order and direct. But if these 
infinities meet in the Christ, then must we ascribe to him honor, 
and glory and dominion forever. 

The Divinity of our Lord rebukes the Materialism of our age. 
For now some years gone Science has been inclined to walk with 
eyes down-bent. In its rash philosophy the universe has come to 
be the child of cosmic sparks, and intelligence to be the grandchild 
of diffused fire-mist. Its god, formerly dwarfed to the meagre 
proportions of an atom, is now further dwindled to the insignifi- 



QQ THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

cance of a molecule; it is the samje deity^ only grown infinitely 
small. While it recognizes a sceptre^ which it calls "Force," it 
acknowledges no supreme Mind to sway it; while it perceives a 
Throne which it honors with the name "Law/^ no loving Being is 
seen to reign there; and while it discourses on evolution, it teaches 
that the dateless procession of things come from nowhere, as they 
are eternal, and are marching nowhither, as they are practically 
endless. How poor and narrow is the universe which it defines,, 
and the life within it how like the journey of a beetle bounded by 
the limits of a field, or like the labor of a mole constructing an 
earthy hill. The eagle diespises the limitations of an acre; and 
the songster, whose sphere of existence embraces Europe and Africa, 
holds in contempt the restrictions of the barn-yard, and would 
miserably perish were it doomed to its enclosure. And the soul — 
the soul that dTeams and worships, that pants continually for 
emancipation from suffocating surroundings, that aspires and tri- 
umphs — ^how can the soul prosper and expand in the close stifling 
air of gross Materialism? We already see the pernicious effects of 
its partial ascendancy in society. The age of manhood seems going, 
that of the mole and barn- fowl seems to be coming. We are prom- 
ised no more hills, for the valle}^ are to be filled by the denudition 
and washing down of meuntains. All personal inequalities are to 
bo abrogated in the interest of mediocrity. If the tendency con- 
tinues the statistician will supplant the preacher, and tliere will 
be registered an advance in material wealth, and an increase in 
spiritual poverty; the beautiful will be quenched in the useful, 
poetry will be crushed by arithmetic, and religion expire in the 
clutches of political economy, ilnd, in the midst of this destruc- 
tion, what remains to the individual? The soul? No, for that 
shares the general ruin. All of its possessions, its attainments, the 
affluence it has acquired through travel and study, have but a pre- 
carious existence like the sheen of light on the waters, and will go 
down in the black void when death shall extinguish the sun of life. 
Ah me ! how terrible the mistake of the man who thrusts from him 
the glowing hopes born of Christ's revelation, for this dreary desert, 
which is all grave without promise of a resurrection. I can only 
liken him to one who is so enamored of the regal robes of his father 



CHBIST AXD CUEEEXT COXTBOVEESIES. 67 

that he loses sight of the living personality and biLries himself in 
their splendor nntil he is smothered. Thns the materialist is in- 
fatnated with the garments of the Almighty, with the beanty of 
earth and glory of heaven, and looks not up to see the Divine face 
that imparts to them their radiance, but enwraps his reason in them 
and is stifled in their massive folds. 

Thirdly — By the relation of Christ to the Church, as revealed in 
the text, we catch a glimpse of the graciousness of his ministry, and 
find the answer of Holy Writ to Ecclesiasticism. I use this term, 
"ecclesiasticism," to denote the singular contradiction to the spirit 
of the gospel, which exalts a religious organization, '"'with rights 
magical to sanctify,'* to a position of authority the most absolute 
and oppressive. And strange it is that in an age distinguished by 
freedom of thought, and that clamors loudly for the unrivalled 
supremacy of the natural, there should be a marked drift toward 
the most superstitious form of the suj)ernatural. Yet so it is, and 
it is not uncommon to hear of cultivated people abandoning the 
enlightened faith of their ancestors for a creed whose monstrous 
absurdities are veiled in the gorgeousness of its ritual. Their plea 
is repose. Singular inconsistency I They claim to find rest in the 
infallibility of a man, and to 1>e unable to find it in the infallibility 
of the Christ. 

Such, however, is not the apostle's teaching in our text. In his 
weighty utterance there is an implied analogy l^etween our Lord's 
relation to the universe and his relation to his spiritual kingdom. 
As he is the origin and support of the former, so is he the source 
and the very life of the latter. He is its founder and its leader; 
for even he is "the first bom from the dead," and leads the re- 
deemed hosts in their triumphal procession from the grave, that in 
everything he might have the pre-eminence. The special figure 
employed ia this connection is likewise of notable significance : "'the 
head of the body, the Church." Some physiologists represent the 
brain as the seat of life, even as it is the throne of guidance. It 
were waste of time to dwell on the union that exists between head 
and members in the human body, but it is well to remember that 
as close, vital, and as necessary is the connection between Christ 
and his disciples. Because he lives they live, and the hope of their 



68 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

calling centres in him. The bonds of sympathy that render them 
one are delicate and strong, intimate and precious. Christ suffers 
in his members, and his members suffer in him. Otherwise how 
explain the passages regarding onr fellowship with him in his 
sufferings? Guthrie tells the story of the martyr women, mother 
and daughter, drowned by Ecclesiastics in the Solway. They were 
tied to stakes that the returning tide might gradually engulf them. 
The daughter was secured nearest to the shore, and could see her 
mother's ineffectual struggles with the rising waters. One of the 
persecutors, pointing to the d3dng mother, asked her, "What do you 
see yonder ?" She replied : "The Lord Jesus suffering in one of his 
members.'' There is not a tear, nor groan, nor pain but he shares 
with his people. IsTow as he is identified with us, we should be 
identified with him, individually and collectively; and a Church, a 
Gospel Church, in its essence is a company of believers participating 
in the Christ-life, and living it in the world. Such a community 
seeks to be disinterested as he was, for to be disinterested is to be 
strong; and the earth is at the feet of those who are too unselfish 
to be tempted. From him it will learn that always and everywhere 
salvation is torture, that peace lies in sacrifice and deliverance in 
death. Vainly does any man turn from the Via Dolorosa; it is the 
only path that leads to the Resurrection.. Jesus was made perfect 
through suffering, and in no other way can Ms people be perfected. 
They only complete themselves when they are in harmony with him. 
This harmony implies submission. He is the "Head of the 
Church" ; but we miss the significance of this figure if we restrict 
its meaning to cold, perfunctory obedience to his mandates, however 
complete and unquestioning that obedience may be. Eecognition 
of his authority is, of course, involved in the conception ; but it goes 
farther and comprehends conformity to his spirit, to his thought, to 
his longings, and mission. A Church, therefore, is a spiritual com- 
munity, honoring his commandments, and reproducing his image 
in its service and worship. Have you ever considered what this 
relationship on his part involves ? We think of his support of the 
universe as so wonderful as to demand the attributes of Godhood; 
but as I meditate on the subject, the resources required to sustain 
the Church must exceed those that are taxed to maintain the physi- 



CHRIST AXD CUEEEXT COXTEOVEESIES. by 

cal order. Matter^ at least, rebels not, wanders not, is not lawless 
and insubordinat-e, while human nature is headstrong, frail, uncer- 
tain and complaining. To govern, control, sanctify, save, even 
believers, what measureless forbearance, what exhaustless pa- 
tience, what boundless love, what infinite tact, yea, and what 
wisdom, power and goodness must be called into play. The cre- 
ative energy of Christ astounds me, fills me with solemn, awe, and 
brings me to my knees in reverent homage; but his sanctifying 
grace thrills me with adoring praise, and impels me upward to his 
heart in the worship of unceasing love. 

By the side of this conception, how poor and contemptible Ec- 
clesiasticism appears — a body without a soul, a dazzling dress en- 
veloping a wooden model. What an infinite imbecile it supposes 
Christ to be, when it represents him as being childishly pleased with 
flowers, with man-millinery, pictures and perfumes. He asks for 
bread and it gives him a stone; a fish, and it gives a serpent; he 
longs for love, it answers by giving art; for faith, and it bestows 
processions; purity, and it mocks him with choir boys. The spec- 
tacular takes the place of the spiritual ; the esthetical obscures with 
its tawdry shows the ethical; and an empire essentially earthy, 
struggling for political place and ofiice, and seeking to supersede 
the functions of the State and of the family in education, is sub- 
stituted for the kingdom that is not of this world and that belongs 
t.i Heaven alike by its origin and destiny. Jesus has indeed suf- 
fered much at the hands of his friends. When on earth his enemies 
arrayed him in. a purple robe, crowned him with thorns, put a reed 
in his hand, and gambled for his seamless coat. Alas ! his friends 
have not dealt much better by him. They have torn his fair brow 
T^ith sharp, angular, thorny Protestant creeds ; they have denied his 
Divinit}^ and invested him with a sceptre destitute of authority and 
potency; they have wrangled over his clothing, sectarian bigotry 
aiming to monopolize that ample garment of redeeming love 
capable of infolding a world; and Eomanists have decked him out 
with all the mummery of earthly kings, dressed him in the cast-off 
clothing of mediaeval superstition, and have cried "Hail!" while in 
reality they have exposed him to the cruel derision of a crowd long 
since disgusted with the theatricalities of Ecclesiasticism. They 



70 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

who have dealt wUh our Lord in any of these ways we must con- 
demn ; but of all of them, the priests who disfigure the Church, who 
reduce it to the level of a mere earthly establishment, while claim- 
ing for it a heavenly origin, and who bewitch by the fascinations of 
ceremonialism the souls of men so that the Divine life is impaired, 
are the most deserving of reproach; for they are misrepresenting, 
not to say caricaturing, the genius of the Christ, and are measura- 
bly neutralizing his saving influence over society and the race. 

May I not, in conclusion, be permitted to remind you that He 
who furnishes an adequate reply to current controversies, likewise 
supplies a sufficient antidote to their mischievous tendencies.. Each 
individual is apt at some time to be infected with one or the other 
of the three theories we have noticed. Frequently tiiey represent 
three stages of spiritual deterioration. The man may conclude that 
knowledge on religious themes is unattainable, and hence so live as 
though fixed and definite obligations were utterly impossible; or, 
adopting the materialistic point of view, may sink into the mire of 
worldliness and earthiness, from which perhaps to be aroused by 
affliction to a sense of his needs, onl}^, however, to commit the folly 
of seeldng relief in a man-made hierarchy. The true refuge is 
Christ. Communion with him will maintain belief in the possi- 
bility of constant intercourse with the Unseen, will emphasize the 
superiority and supremacy of man's spiritual nature, and will con- 
vince that only a spiritual religion can ever satisfy and elevate. I 
therefore most earnestly direct all thoughtful souls to him. "He 
is the way, the truth and the life"; as the Truth he saves the in- 
dividual from' Agnosticism; as the Way he preserves him from 
Materialism, and as the Life delivers him from the death wrought 
by Ceremonialism. 

Well does Augustine say: "The current of things temporal 
sweeps along. But like a tree over that stream has risen our Lord 
Jesus Christ. He willed to plant himself as it were over the river. 
Are you whirled along l)y the current ? Lay hold of the tree. Does 
the love of the world roll you onward in its course ? Lay hold upon 
Christ. For you he became temporal that you might become 
eternal." "Join they heart to the eternity of God, and thou shalt 
bo eternal with him." So bends that Divine tree over you to-dav. 



CHEIST AXD CUEEENT CONTEOVEESIES. 71 

Cauglit in the swollen streams of worldly thought, bewildered by 
the rush of waters, and whirled in the maelstrom of restless and 
engulfing speculations, your hope is in Christ, and in him alone. 
I'it}dngly he bends over you, the boughs and branches of his 
majestic personality touch 3^ou. I pray you lay hold on him. 
Neglect, delay, and the mighty flood of error shall have swept you 
beyond all help into the desolate, pathetic and moaning ocean of 
intellectual and spiritual despair. 



73 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 



GOD'S EIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE THE GREAT MOUNTAINS 



By Henry Melville King, D. D., 

Ehode Island 

"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." — Psalm 36 : 6. 

MOST striking and snggestive is the imagery of the Bible. 
The sublimest scenes in nature are chosen to set forth the 
attributes and perfections of God. The distant clonds, the lofty 
mountains, the fathomless sea are made to illustrate the extent of 
God's mercy, the grandeur of his righteous character, and the 
mj^stery of his providential dealings with men. All things visible 
are made to pay tribute to the invisible Maker of all. All the 
power and the beauty of figurative language are exhausted in the 
inspired attempt to portray to human minds the inexhaustible grace 
and glory of the Divine nature. The text is taken from a de- 
scriptive passage of surpassing eloquence and grandeur. "Thy 
mercy, Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth 
unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; 
thy judgments are a great deep : Lord, thou preservest man and 
beast. How excellent is thy loving kindness, God! Therefore 
the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." 
It is sometimes said that in the Old Testament we find a low 
standard of morality, vague and imperfect ethical notions, only dim 
conceptions of righteousness as an essential element in the character 
of God, and as required by him in the character and conduct of 
man. There are a few incidents in the Old Testament, as, for 
illustration, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and the destruction of the 
Canaanites, which we find it difficult to reconcile with our moral 



HENEY MELVILLE KING is the pastor of the historic First Baptist 
Church in Providence, R. I. He was born in Oxford, Me., and is descended 
from the early settlers of New England. When he Avas six years of age his 
parents removed to Portland, where he spent his boyhood and received his 
preparation for college. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1859, and 
from NeAAd:on Theological Institution in 1862. He remained in this institu- 
tion as Instructor in the Hebrew Language for a brief period. He was sub- 
sequently elected Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Duties, but declined 
the position. He became pastor of the Dudley-Street Baptist Church in 
Boston, April 1, 1863, being the immediate successor of Rev. Thomas D. 
ilnderson, D. D., who had been called to the pastorate of the First Baptist 
Church in New York city. He continued as pastor of this church for nearly 
nineteen years, accepting the call of the Emmanuel Church in Albany, N. Y., 
and beginning his labors there, January 1, 1882. After a service of nine and 
a half years in Albany he became pastor of his present church, July 1, 1891. 

He has been actively identified with the missionary and educational 
work of the denomination. He was a member of the Executive Committee 
of the Missionary Union from 1874 to 1882, and chairman of the Board of 
Managers from 1884 to 1887. He was again elected a member of the Execu- 
tiA^e Committee in 1894, after his return to New England, and has been its 
chairman since the death of Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon. He has been twice 
elected the Foreign Secretary, in 1891 and 1899, but did not feel at liberty 
to give up the pastorate. He was the president of the Northern Baptist 
Education Society from 1875 to 1882, and is now a Trustee of Newton 
Theological Institution, of Worcester Academy, of Brown University, and of 
Vassar College, and the president of the Board of Trustees of the Hartshorn 
Memorial College, Richmond, Va. He also served on the boards at Hamil- 
ton and Rochester while residing in Albany. He received the degree of D. D. 
from Colby University in 1877, and of S. T. D. from his Alma Mater in 1899. 
Amid the duties of a busy pastorate he has given attention to Baptist his- 
tory, and has published several books historical and religious. The titles of 
his principal publications are: "History of Baptists in Memorial History of 
Boston"; "Early Baptists Defended"; "Mary's Alabaster Box"; "Memo- 
rial Discourse on Rev. Wm. Hague, D. D."; "Our Gospels"; "A Summer 
Visit of Three Rhode Islanders to the Massachusetts Bay in 1651"; "The 
Mother Church"; "The Baptism of Roger Williams"; "The Messiah in the 
Psalms," and "Memorial Discourse on Reuben A. Guild, A. M., LL.D." 
(74) 



GOD^S KIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE THE GREAT MOUNTAINS. 75 

ideas. The difficulty may grow out of our imperfect knowledge of 
the circmnstances or our inadequate apprehension of the great 
purposes which God had in view in his progressive dealings with 
men and nations., There can be no question, however, that in these 
exceptional incidents the immediate effect was positively and only 
moral., Abraham was a holier man after the trial of his faith, 
and the children of Israel found in the destruction of the Canaan- 
ites not only a deliverance from the awful peril of apostasy from 
God which might have thwarted the Divine purpose in the plan of 
human redemption, but an illustration of God^s righteous judgment 
against sin and unbelief, and of God^s gracious care over his people, 
which they never forgot. 

At any rate, no man can read carefully the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures, and note the tone and trend of their teachings, from the 
judgment of the first sin in the garden and the first murder without 
the garden, down through the giving of the law, both ceremonial 
and moral, the sacrifices and the commandments, and the constantly 
reiterated denunciations of evil by God's stem prophets, without 
getting a profound impression of the moral nature of God^s govern- 
ment, and without being convinced that the glory of heaven and 
the supreme requirement of man on earth is righteousness. 

Indeed, with a strange contradiction and inconsistency some 
persons have gone so far the other way as to declare that the Old 
Testament contains nothing but righteousness ; that from beginning 
to end we behold only the sterner aspects of God's character in the 
condemnation of sin and the infliction of deserved penalty; that 
we find no unclouded revelation of love and mercy until we come 
down to the Word made flesh, and the eloquent testimony of the 
uplifted cross of Calvary. All of which proves simply that men 
need to read their Bibles more intelligently and prayerfully, and 
without mental bias. 

The two Eevelations may disclose progress in the unfolding of 
truth, but not contradiction. The Old Testament, like the New, is 
full of the mercy of the Lord which endureth forever, and, like the 
Xew, it has its lessons of exalted holiness, and is filled with the 
highest and sublimest conceptions of righteousness. This principle 
is wrought into the very substance of the old dispensation. It 



76 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

throbs in all its life, and gives force and direction to the current 
of all its teachings. Eighteonsness ! How it peals out from these 
sacred pages like the regularly recurring boom of the sea, wave 
following wave with unabated force ! How it echoes and resounds 
in thunder-tones along the mountain sides of these ancient Scrip- 
tures ! Listen to them whenever and wherever you will, and you 
hear the deep and solemn rumbling of the same unceasing and 
unmistakable righteousness. "The righteous Lord loveth righteous- 
ness." "The jud'gments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether." "Eighteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in 
the way of his steps." "By terrible things in righteousness wilt 
thou answer us." "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteous- 
ness." "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains," or, as it 
might be translated, "like the mountains of God." The loftiest 
and sublimest works of creation are chosen to set forth that which 
is loftiest and sublimest in the character of the Creator. "Thy 
righteousness is like thine own mountains." The mountains un- 
changeable, immovable, sublime are the eternal pulpits which God 
has built to proclaim^ something of the glory of the Divine nature 
to the little creatures who dwell at their base and listen awe-struck 
and reverent to their message. 

The inhabitant of the Holy Land was not unacquainted with 
impressive mountain sceneTy. Some of the most memorable events 
of his national history were associated with the mountains of Pales- 
tine. South of Jerusalem were the mountains of Judah. To the 
east, across the valley of the Jordan, rose the mountains of Gilead. 
Immediately in the north were the mountains of Ephraim, with 
Gilboa and Tabor a little farther away, while in the far northern 
sky Mount Hermon lifted its snowy crown ten thousand feet, and 
shared its glory with the Lebanon range, which was of equal height, 
and, as the name indicates, was the White Mountain range, the 
Mont Blanc, of Syria. Surrounded on every hand by lifted sum- 
mits, near and remote, the poetic nature of the Psalmist must have 
been often thrilled with delight as he watched "the misty mountain 
tops" and the ever-changing pictures of light and shadow moving 
across their sides, as he saw them illumined by the first golden rays 
of the morning or purple in the light of the evening sun, until 



GOD 5 EIGHTEOUSXESS LIKE THE GREAT MOUXTAIXS. 77 

seeming to rise loftier and more sublime, their outlines faded away 
in the mysterious darkness of night; and his soul must have been 
filled with solemn awe as he saw the storm clouds, livid with rage 
and black with impetuous wrath, rolling and beating against their 
hidden forms, while the startling thunder made their foundations 
tremble. 

Such scenes, the Psalmist must have looked upon from his boy- 
hood. It was no sudden fancy of a resemblance that seized him, 
but it was a deliberate and oft-felt conviction, when amid such 
natural scenery he contemplated the righteous character of G-od 
and asked himself, to what material and visible object shall I liken 
it, and with what suitable comparison shall I make it known ? and 
answered, "''The righteousness of God, why I it is like the great 
mountains.'' 

What are some of the obvious points of resemblance on which the 
comparison is based ? 

I. The first and most obvious feature of mountain scenery is its 
sublimity. The susceptible mind, as it gazes upon the lofty sum- 
mits towering one above another until they seem, like huge pillars, 
to bear up the clouds, is filled with an indescribable sense of awe. 
Tt is said that some dwellers under the ven* shadow of the Alps 
never turn their reverent gaze up toward the colossal forms that 
look down upon their humble dwellings, and live oblivious of the 
presence of their mute and majestic neighbors. Such natures are 
as dull as the clods on which they tread, or as their domestic ani- 
mals, who look full-eyed upon the landscape, but have no soul 
within to catch and retain the image. 

But most persons, though they may not be able to compare things 
material with things spiritual, do rec-eive an impression from the 
sublime in nature; and it is not the impression of mere size and 
bulk, but the impression of power, of power that lifted the im- 
mense masses to the sky and congealed them into form. Moreover, 
power always implies life and being. "Give me matter,^' said Kant, 
'■'and I will explain the formation of a world; but give me matter 
only, and I cannot explain the formation of a caterpillar." The 
thoughtful mind sees underneath the mountains the almighty hand 
that lifted them into beinsr. and is overawed with a sense of his 



78 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

power that gave them shape against the sky. There is a spiritual 
interpretation of nature which finds expression in the words, ^^Which 
by his strength setteth fast the mountains, being girded with 
power." 

How lofty, how impressive, how awe-inspiring is the absolute 
righteousness of God to every man who reflects upon its nature as 
an essential attribute of the Divine Being. This is not the aspect 
of God^s character which men most love to contemplate. Yet none 
is more real, more essential, more God-like than this., It is this 
which makes God God, and an object worthy of the worship of 
moral beings. God must be holy and righteous in all his ways. 
The infinitely perfect Being must be the infinitely righteous Being. 
Holiness has been declared to be "our necessarily fundamental 
conception" of the character and being of God. The late President 
Eobinson said : "Every other moral attribute, when analyzed, brings 
us more or less directly to holiness as its underlying thought. The 
last analysis of justice, mercy, benevolence, blessedness, veracity, 
glory, majesty, is holiness." Any system of theology which is to 
command the permanent respect of men and minister strength to 
moral character, must exalt the righteousness of God, as the Scrip- 
tures uniformly exalt it, lifting it above the low level of human 
conduct and life, as an Alp towers above the plain at its foot, making 
it manifest in the record of his dealings with nations and with 
men, in the revelations which his inspired servants have given, in 
his clear and unchangeable condemnation of sin, and, above all and 
most conspicuously, in the crucifixion of his only-begotten Son for 
the guilt of the world. For, make the death of the innocent Son 
of God on the cross as great an expression of love as you will (and 
you cannot overstate it, and may quickly repudiate every theory of 
the atonement which is not saturated with love), yet, as the Apostle 
Paul says, that death, that central death of human history, was 
intended also "to declare God's righteousness in the remission of 
sins that are past; to declare, I say, at that time his righteousness, 
that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in 
Jesus." 

To make the death of Christ simply an expression of Divine love 
is to miss half its significance, and overlook the distinct teaching of 



god's EIGHTEOrSXESS LIKE THE GEEAT MOUXTAIXS. 79 

the Word of God. It is to fail to see God's most impressive ex- 
hibition of his essential holiness. Mr. Spurgeon has said : "Xo awe 
inspired by mountain scenery can equal that which fills the soul 
when it beholds the Son of God slain as a victim to vindicate the 
justice of the inflexible Lawgiver. Eight across the path of every 
unholy man who dreams of heavem stand the towering And^ of 
Divine righteousness, which no unregenerate sinner can ever climb. 
Among great mountains lie slumbering avalanches, and there the 
yoxmg lightnings try their callow wings until the storm rushes down 
amain from the awful peaks ; so against the great day of the Lord's 
wrath the Lord has laid up in the mountains of his righteousness 
dreadful ammunition of war, with which to overwhelm his adver- 
saries.^' 

IT. i^otice, secondly, how immovable the mountains are, resting 
solidly upon their broad and deep foundations. Unmoved by th.e 
fury of the winds, the violence of the tempest, the bursting of the 
thunder, unaffected even by the changes of centuries, they have 
become the symbols of permanence and stabilit}'. They are th.e 
great sentinels of the continents, the indestructible boundaries of 
empires. Sometimes in tropical climes subject to earthquakes the 
contour of the earth may be slightly modified. But the most 
immovable of all material things are the mountains. The courses 
of the rivers may be changed in the lapse of time, the shores of 
continents may recede before the advancing tide by the perpetual 
attrition of the waves, the massive glaciers may creep slowh' down 
towards the valleys: but the mountains remain the same forever. 
Men may, at great toil and expense, construct their narrow high- 
ways up their sides and along their dangerous precipices; an am- 
bitious Xapoleon may lead his conquering army through their snow- 
filled passes : human skill and patience and daring engineering may 
succeed in tunneling them, and making a pathway for commerce 
through their granite bowels; but the mountains remain undis- 
turbed, and unconscious of the little encroachments of man. 

The Swiss boy who fled from his native land, returns an old man 
to find parents and kindred buried beneath the sod, the old home 
crumbled into dust, the hamlet, it may be, disappeared, all around 



80 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

him the evidences of change and deca}^; but the same old familiar 
summits look calmly down upon his grief and loneliness, the solitary 
reminders of the past, unchanged, immovable still. 

As unshaken, as immovable, as unaffected by the conflicts of 
human opinion and the divers standards of right and wrong and 
moral obligation among men, as permanent and nndistrirbed as the 
great mountains, is the righteousness of Grod. "As winds and hur- 
ricanes shake not an Alp, so the righteousness of God is never in 
any degree affected by circumstances ; he is always just." Men may 
find it difficult to justify the dealings and the ways of G-od; they 
may demur at his judgments, and his stern condemnation of all 
sin; they may think they discover inconsistencies between the elder 
and the younger Testaments, or that the plain teachings of the Bible 
violate their supposed ethical sense; they may fear lest the ark of 
God^s righteousness may be overturned by the rough and careless 
jostling which it receives; but God's righteousness is the same 
perfect, resplendent attribute in each dispensation and in all dis- 
pensations, uninfluenced by human ignorance or doubt, undisturbed 
by human opposition or the varying conditions of human life and 
progress, unchanging as his o^^ eternal nature, inflexible as the 
laws of his moral kingdom, immovable as the mountains. "Thy 
righteousness, Lord, is an everlasting righteousness.^' "Let God be 
true, and every man a liar.'' 

III. This suggests a third point of resemblance between the holi- 
ness of God's character and the mountains, viz. : the sense of rest- 
fulness which their contemplation produces. Have you never felt, 
as you sat looking upon the stillness of the hills, as they rose calmly 
and peacefully above you, their heads lifted above the noise and 
confusion of the world into the quiet of the upper air, an inde- 
scribable sense of rest in mind and body, as if you, too, were taken 
up bodily out of the strifes and cares, the annoyances and weariness 
of life, and were soothed to rest by a kind of sympathy with the 
iij animate friends with whom you held communion? 

The sea is full of motion, of restlessness, a ceaseless roll and 
activity, a never ending ebb and flow, even when it is not lashed 
by the fury of the storm. But the mountains are ever motionless 
and still. No winds toss them, and no billows rock them. Amid 



god's righteousness like the great mountains. 81 

storm and sunshine they preserve the same calm.', reposeful dignity. 
The proverb has it, "As restless as the troubled sea." It might also 
be proverbial, by way of contrast, "As restful as the quiet moun- 
tains." 

So, when I contemplate the righteousness of God, lofty, serene, 
unshaken, immovable, the same unchanging attribute of the same 
holy Being, never weak and never wrong in its activities, and all- 
comprehending in its sweep, my soul is filled with a calm repose 
and a restful, peace-giving confidence. I am weary and sick of this 
interminable discussion and agitation, the clash and conflict of 
human opinions, the friction of creeds, the perpetual warfare be- 
tween faith and unbelief. I am weary of thinking of the dark, 
unsolved problems of life, the origin of evil, the weakness and 
perversity of human wills, the awfully destructive power of sin in 
the world, the seeming triumph of misery and shame, and the slow 
progress of that kingdom which is "righteousness and peace and 
jcy." I am distressed sometimes to hear weak, finite men vainly 
attempt to harmonize God^s judgments and God^s revealed truths 
with their own narrow and imperfect views of things, declaring 
authoritatively what God ought to do, and what God ought to teach, 
and even blasphemously fiinging their accusations against the moral 
nature of the moral Governor of the universe. But I find rest and 
comfort in the belief and contemplation of God^s perfect righteous- 
ness, lifting its head like a snowy mountain-summit above all doubt 
and perplexity, all discussion and confiict, all tumult and wicked- 
ness of men, immaculate, unapproachable and eternal. Whatever 
men may think, or say, or do> I know that God is righteous. He 
always has done right; he is now doing right; he will evermore do 
right. "Here I stand; so help me God." 

Rev. Dr. L^man Beecher, the father, the noblest Eoman of them 
all, was once warning a company of young ministers against the 
dangers of theological speculation. "Wliy, young gentlemen," said 
he, "I sometimes speculate myself; but I first go along the shore 
of the pond until I find a firm and unpelding stump, and make fast 
to that, and then if I get beyond my depth, and do not know where 
I am, I know where the stump is." Let us make fast to the firm, 



82 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the immutable righteo-Qsness of God in all our theological question- 
ings, and speciilations, and doubts. 

lY.. What has already been said will suggest a fourth point of 
resemblance between the righteous character of God and the great 
mountains. The mountains do not alwa3^s stand bathed in the 
bright sunlight. Sometimes they do, and your eye can see their 
clear outlines with their fringe of trees and the deep depressions 
which run up and down their sides, and in the transparent atmos- 
phere you seem almost able to touch them, they are so near. But at 
other times dark shadows move across them, the mists settle thick 
about their feet, and black, heavy clouds rest down upon them, and 
cover them as with a pall. The mountains are still there, but they 
are changed in appearance, or completely hidden from view. 

Just so the righteousness of our God, in his dealings with nations 
and with men, sometimes in his dealings with you and with me, 
even as in his dealings with his innocent Son, our crucified Saviour, 
may be dark with many a cloud, and veiled with a thick, impene^ 
trable atmosphere of mystery, and utterly hidden from our compre- 
hension. The Psalmist follows the text with another impressive 
figure, "And thy judgments are a great deep," dark and unfathom- 
able, a thought which Cowper expresses in the familiar words : 

" God moves in a mysterious way. 
His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

The sunlight of prosperity is interchanged in all human experi- 
ences with the dark shadows of trial and adversity. There are 
great, awful mysteries under the reign of God, as, for example, 
hereditary depravit}^, insanity and idiocy, the existence of evil, and 
the unnumbe*red calamities and ills to which all life is exposed. 
Sometimes in the blackness which surrounds us we cannot distin- 
guish even a dim outline of righteousness, and are led to question 
whether there be a moral government of the world and a righteous 
God on its throne. But the mountains are still there in darkness 
as in sunlight, though our vision sees them not. 

The great philosopher. Bishop Berkeley, described the thought 



god's righteousness like the great M0UXTAIN"S. 83 

which occurred to him^ of the inscrutable wsljs of Providence, as 
he saw a fly moving on one of the pillars of Saint Paul's Cathedral: 
^•'It requires some comprehension in the eye of an intelligent spec- 
tator to take in at one view the various parts of the building, in 
order to observe their symmetry and design. But to the fly, whose 
prospect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a 
single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the distinct use of its 
parts was inconspicuous. To that limited view, the small irregu- 
larities on the surface of the stone seemed to be so many deformed 
rocks and precipices." 

And Dean Stanley, unfolding the beautiful illustration, said: 
"That fly on the pillar, of which the philosopher spoke, is the like- 
ness of each human being as he creeps along the vast pillars which 
support the universe. The sorrow which appears to us nothing but 
a yawning chasm or a hideous precipice, may turn out to be but the 
joining or cement which binds together the fragments of our 
existence into a solid whole ! That dark and crooked path in which 
we have to grope our wa}" in doubt and fear may be but the curve 
which in the full dajdight of a brighter world will appear to be 
the necessary finish of some choice ornament, the inevitable span 
of some majestic arch!'^ 

We need to remember that, with all our boasted wisdom, we are 
but flies creeping along the pillars which support the universe, but 
children looking at the great mountains which are often liidden 
from our view. 

V. Finally, as at evening the mountains are sometimes clothed 
^th a purple glory, and glow with the brightness of an almost un- 
earthly splendor, so when the evening of life shall come, and we 
pass on into the brightness of another world, there will be no 
shadows of dou.bt and mystery on the Di\T.ne righteousness then. 
All God's ways will be seen to be right, the clouds and the mists 
"will roll away forever, and God's righteousness and God's mercy, 
twin mountains, will lift their heads in undimmed splendor against 
eternity's sky, and share an equal glory in the eyes of angels and 
redeemed men. 

The king asked the artist, who taught him to play, and Ole Bull 
replied, "The mountains of N'orway, your majesty." May the lofty 



84 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

mountains of God''s rigMeonsness, as well as love, inspire the be- 
lieving songs of his children. "I will sing of mercy and judgment/' 
said the Psalmist, of the judgment which chastens my sin as well 
as of the mercy which forgives it, of the trials which humble me as 
well as of the comforts which cheer me, of the blows of his hand 
as well as of the kisses of his lips. The last poem which blind 
Milton ever wrote was a hymn of praise to God for his blindness : 

" I am old and blind ! 
Men point at me as smitten with. God's frown, 
Afflicted and deserted by my kind: 
Yet I am not cast down. 

I am weak, yet dying, 
I murmur not that I no longer see: 
Poor, old and helpless, I the more belong, 

Father Supreme, to thee. 

O merciful One! 
When men are farthest, then thou art most near; 
When men pass coldly by — my weakness shun — 

Thy chariot I hear. 

Thy glorious face 
Is leaning toward me, and its holy light 
Shines upon my lowly dwelling-place, 

And there is no more night. 

On bended knee 
I recognize thy purpose clearly shown; 
My vision thou hast dimmed that I might see 

Thyself — thyself alone." 

May God give to us all such faith and clearness of spiritual 
vision that we may recognize even now, amid the dark problems 
of life, something of the glory of that righteousness which is like 
the great mountains. 



CHARLES ALBERT PIDDOCK was born in Lorraine, Jefferson county, 
Xew York, Julv 25, 1849. His mother was bom in Bennington, Vt., and his 
great grandfather, William Hutchins, was a captain during the Revolu- 
tionarv War. His father, Charles Piddock, was born in England, and came 
to this country in the sixth year of his age, and settled in Western New 
York, with his father and grandfather. Among his relatiA'es on his mother's 
side was Commodore Oliver Perry, the hero of Lake Erie. Mr. Piddock pre- 
pared for college at the Hungerford Institute and Mexico Academy, and 
entered the class of 1872 at Hamilton College. During his freshman year 
he became interested in the views of the Baptists, being at that time a Pres- 
byterian. The result was that at the close of his freshman year he united 
with the Baptist church in Mexico, N. Y., having been baptized by the Rev. 
R. R. Muzzy. He entered the sophomore class of Colgate L'niversity, and 
graduated among the first scholars in that class. He then studied m the Ham- 
ilton Theological Seminary, and was ordained at Claremout, X, H., March 
30, 1874, where he had a successful pastorate of about four years, during 
which time over one hundred and fifty united with the church. He then 
became pastor of the First Church, West Springfield, Mass., which had a 
large gro^^i;h during his ministry of three years, when he was called to 
MiddletoT^^l, Conn. During his ministry here 230 persons united with the 
church. In the autumn of 1887 he was invited to become Superintendent of 
Missions of the Connecticut Baptist Convention. He had been for several 
years identified with the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of this 
organization, and served for one year as superintendent, declining a unani- 
mous re-election. He then purchased the Christian Secretary, then edited by 
the late Rev. Dr. S. D. Phelps, and continued as editor for nine years, when 
he sold the paper to the Xew York Examiner. During the past five years 
he has l3€en a constant writer for that paper, and at the same time Super- 
intendent of ^lissions for the State Convention, to which position he was 
again re-elected on ceasing to become editor of the Christian Secretary. Mr. 
Piddock has been identified not only with the work of the denomination in 
Connecticut, but was associated with Dr. W. R. Harper in the publication 
of various periodicals when the latter was professor in Yale University. 
The position of manager of the University Press of Chicago was tendered 
to him, but declined, he preferring to remain identified with religious work. 
On October 6, 1873, he married Gertrude P. Farnsworth, of Saxtous River. 
Vermont, and they have had four children, and two sons are now living. 
Mr. Piddock is constantly called upon, not only to preach, but tO; give 
lectures and addresses in all parts of the State, as well as to carry on the 
business of his office as Superintendent of Missions of the Connecticut Bap- 
tist Convention. 
{S5) 




ami^i ^, 



THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME. 87 

YI 

THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME 



By Chaeles Albert Piddock, D. D., 

Connecticut 

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name 
which is above every name." — Phil. 2 : 9. 

YEARS ago in the city of London there was a famine, and 
thousands perished because of want of food. Some of the 
iatelligent, wealthy, and well disposed citizens of that city deter- 
mined to provide food for the hungry and the starving, and in 
various parts of that mighty metropolis they furnished free din- 
ners, and had bills posted telling where these dinners could be 
obtained. I see the well-dressed and well-to-do man looking on 
these bills, and as he looks he says, "This is all very well for the 
hungry and the starving, but it has no reference to me, for I am 
rich and have no need of these things." He is a type of the human 
soul to-day that says, "Religion is all very well for the drunkard, 
and the abandoned and the outcast, but I am a moral man and 
have no need of the religion of Jesus Christ. I see others looking 
on these bills, and they stand questioning, and saying, "This tells 
where dinners can be had, but how do we know but what we are 
deceived." They are like those who stand on the very brink of the 
eternal world, with the arrows of death flying thick and fast about 
them, and question the authority and authenticity of the word of 
God. They are the souls who ask such questions as these: "Where 
did Cain get his wife?" "What kind of a bush was it that Moses 
threw into the bitter waters to make them sweet?" "What kind of 
a fish was it that swallowed Jonah?" Standing in the very pres- 
ence of eternity, they throw doubt upon the only book that, as Dr. 
Holland says, "sounds as though it came from the other side of 
the grave." In the text the apostle does not say that Jesus is great, 
or grand, or glorious, but he asserts his supremacy over all other 



88 TI-IE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

names in human history, and over all beings in heaven or in earth, 
outside of the Trinity. 

1. The first thought I desire to present is that the name of Jesus 
Christ is above every name in the e very-day lives of men. We 
love to think of Jesus as he was before the morning of creation, 
way back in the very outposts of time, but we would rather think 
of him in his every-day life in Palestine, going about doing good, 
and proving the truth of the prophecy, "Surely he hath borne our 
sins and carried our sorrows.^' It would seem' that, during the 
earthly ministry of Jesus, he took upon himself the sorrows of 
mankind.' I do not believe that anyone ever came into his presence, 
while on the earth, that did not feel the touch of his sympathy. All 
the instances and examples we have teach us to believe that he was 
the sympathetic Christ. He even took upon himself the sorrows 
of the abandoned woman, and helped the harlot to a better life. To 
my mind, the great need of the church to-day is more of the spirit 
and example of Jesus Christ in every-day life. We need to show 
to the world the spirit of Gethsemane and the cross. It seems to 
me that one of the great sources of weakness to-day is the lack of 
this spirit. The world needs to feel the touch of a Saviour's sym- 
pathy, and human souls, as in the olden time, will respond to this 
love. 

2. The name of Jesus Christ is above every name in the Bihl':^. 
In fact, I may say that the Bible would be only dark and mys- 
terious if we did not have the light in it that shines from a 
Saviour's face. I go back to the first chapters of G-enesis, and I 
find Jesus as the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's 
head. The light that beamed from the cross of Calvary shone 
across the great gulf of the Deluge, and in Abraham we have the 
promise repeated "that in his seed all the nations of the earth 
shall be blessed." Old Jacob, in his glorious vision at the close of 
life, uttered this prediction: "The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." 
The light shone across the years of Egyptian bondage to that giant 
spirit, Moses, who in his last da;^^ had a vision of the coming 
Messiah when he said, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up 
unto you like unto me." In the days of David, God promised that 



THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME. 89 

the coming Saviour should be born in Bethlehem, and be of the 
royal house. Isaiah had a vision, when he said, "His name shall 
be called Wonderful, .Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father 
and Prince of Peace." I believe Job saw the glories of the coming 
kingdom, and said, "I know that my Eedeemer liveth and that he 
shall stand in the latter day upon the earth." In fact, the Old 
Testament may be regarded as the history of the gradual develop- 
ment of the Messianic idea among men. It is by losing sight of 
this idea that the Old Testament becomes a dark and unfathomable 
riddle. It is something more than merely the account of the be- 
ginnings of the human race, and the scattering of the nations over 
the face of the earth. It gives an account of the sin of man, and 
the coming Saviour of man. Only those persons who see Christ in 
the Old Testament really get into its heart. They miay read the 
account of the fall of man, and the scattering of the nations and the 
tramp of armies, but they need also to see traveling in the greatness 
of his strength, the coming Eedeemer of mankind. The dawn of 
the kingdom of Christ in the New Testament was amply foretold by 
the prophets and bards of the olden time. And what is true in 
regard to history is true also in regard to all the types and shadows 
and emblems of the Old Testament worship. The Paschal lamb of 
the Passover Feast represented the Lamb of G-od that taketh away 
the sin of the world. The manna that the children of Israel 
gathered in the wilderness as their daily food was a type of Jesus 
Christ as the Bread of Life. All the sacrifices and offerings of 
Jewish worship pointed forward to the supreme sacrifice to sin, 
when the Lamb was slain once for all, and those who accepted his 
sacrifice have eternal redemption. When John said on the banks 
of the Jordan, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 
oi' the world," he uttered a truth that the Jews could all understand. 
They were looking for just such a jMessiah, though they failed to 
recognize his spiritual mission. From one end of the Bible to the 
other, the name of Jesus Christ is above every name. In fact, the 
subject of the Bible, comprehensively stated, is, "The sin of man 
and the Saviour of man." It is not necessary that I should here 
argue concerning the Divine character of the word of God. It has 
stood the test of the centuries, and our fathers and mothers made 



90 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT, 

no mistake when they rested their heads, at death as in life, upon 
its promises. Were it not for the hope held out in the Bible of a 
fiitiire life, then death would be as the poet says, "A long, dark 
night that has no morn beyond it and no star/^ Jesus Christ in- 
deed brought life and immortality to light in the gospel. I can 
but pity those men who would throw discredit upon any part of 
God^s word, who attack the fortress of the miracles; tell us that 
the story of creation is only a fable ; that Jonah never really existed, 
and I suppose they would question the account that the dumb 
animal which Balaam rode could articulate. But when I hear such 
people talk, I am ready to believe the story of Balaam, and that 
the dumb ass did really speak. For eighteen hundred years the 
word of God has been attacked by sceptics and infidels, but it has 
stood the test of genius and of time. Ever since the close of the 
glorious book of the Eevelation, it has been the comfort, and, by 
its promises, the inspiration of the world. To-day it is foremost, 
and what the Mississippi is among the rivers, with its two thousand 
miles of navigable waters, the Bible is among the books of the world, 
and the supreme name in that book is the only name given under 
heaven or among men whereby we can be saved. 

3. The name of Jesus Christ is above every name in time of trial 
and bereavement. We need not go very far to find trouble and 
sorrow. In fact, the ground on which we tread is billowy with 
graves. There is hardly a family that has not been bereaved, and 
the thought oftentimes comes to us, is there another life? When 
we place our loved ones in the cemetery, where in the spring time 
we put flowers on their graves, as sweet prophecies of the morning 
of the resurrection, we ask ourselves the question, shall we ever see 
them again ? Is there any power that can raise those lifeless forms, 
and clothe them with a beauty that is immortal ? And in the midst 
of our tears, the words of Jesus come, "I am the Eesurrection and 
the Life; he that believeth on me, even though he were dead, yet 
shall he live." When we meditate on thiese thoughts we can see 
our loved ones clothed with the radiance of eternity, more beautiful 
than angels ever whispered or poets ever sang. I do not wonder 
that men without hope in Jesus Christ take their own lives, for this 
world would indeed be desolate unless we had a realizing sense of 



THE NAME ABOVE EVERY XAME. 91 

the presence of the Saviour and a preparation for another and 
grander life. There is not a sorrow that comes to the hearts of 
men in vhich Jesus Christ does not have a personal interest. 'No 
mother ever watched over a sick child as the Saviour is watching 
over this world, his purpose being that all who will believe in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life. The name of Jesus Christ 
is indeed above all human names in the trials, temptations, and 
sorrows that come to human flesh. Many people do not understand 
the art of s}Tnpathy. They make a miserable failure when they 
try to comfort those who are mourning. Xot so with the Lord. 

4. These thoughts lead me naturally to say that the name of 
Jesus Christ will be above every name in heaven. We all have 
our ideas of heaven; many of us think of it as differing in degree 
but not in kind from this world. We think of it as having fairer 
skies and calmer seas. We read the beautiful picture given to us, 
piled up like the clouds of sunset, in the last chapters of the Eeve- 
Iction. Heaven is no doubt a place as real and substantial, in fact, 
far more so, than this world in which we live. But, after all, the 
great thing about heaven is not its outward beauty. It is not the 
crystal streams and pearly sands, jasper walls, and gates of pearl 
that make heaven beautiful. It is the presence of Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour of sinners, that makes heaven attractive to us. It is 
the fact that all the redeemed from all ages and all climes are 
gathered in that happy place, and that they live forever in the midst 
of the paradise of God in the house of many mansions, and the 
Lamb of God is with them, that makes heaven to us the home of 
the soul. We love to think of heaven as a place free from all 
sickness and pain. We love to think of it as free from the diseases 
of this world. The breezes that blow across the eternal hills are 
filled with immortal vigor, and no malaria floats in the air of that 
land. The nations of the saved are constantly gazing upon the 
Saviour, and to them he is the name above every name. 

And not only in heaven itself, but in the celestial music, the name 
of Christ is above all other names. We are blessed with a view of 
the music of heaven, and a few stanzas have come all the way down 
to earth, in the words, "Blessing and honor and dominion and 
glory and power be unto him who sitteth upon the throne and unto 



92 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the Lamb forever andi ever." The harpers, as they tune their harps 
for the immortal minstrelsy, thinly only of the Eedeemer, and I 
believe that m^any of those who used to sing sweetly here on earth, 
but who have passed into the unseen, are now singing the praises of 
Christ, and the glory of him who bought them with his precious 
blood. This thought should be a constant inspiration to us in the 
midst of our sorrows and tears. This is a world of separations, 
fathers from mothers, husbands fromi wives, parents from little 
ones, but over yonder across that stormless sea of ether, in the 
realms of eternal peace, every believing soul who has passed from 
earth now dwells. The name of Christ is above every name in 
heaven., 

5. I come now to the most important truth, and one upon which 
all the others hinge, when I say that the name of Jesus Christ is 
above every name in the great plan of redem^ption. The Bible and 
our own experience both represent this as a lost world, needing 
salvation, and the Bible tells us that the Son of Man came to seek 
and to save the lost. He saw his mission wherever he saw a lost 
soul. Men are lost just as the great ocean steamer is lost that 
strikes an iceberg and goes down with all on board. So the human 
race has made shipwreck of eternal happiness, by rejecting the 
authority of God. Men are lost, and so G-od sent his Son that 
whosoever believeth in him^ should not perish, but have eternal life. 
The fountain of love was in the heart of God. We see this pictured 
in the story of the prodigal son, and in a thousand ways God has 
manifested his love for the world. If men are lost it is their own 
fault, for everything has been done that could be done consistent 
with eternal righteousness and truth for the salvation of the human 
race. To-day the tender heart of Christ yearns over sinners, and 
the Spirit is brooding over mankind to restore souls to fellowship 
and happiness with God. It is against all these influences that the 
human soul struggles to remain in rebellion against God. Angels 
have never yet been able to measure or fathom the love of God as 
manifested in the face of Jesus Christ. I do not wonder the poet 
said: 

" Oh, for such love that rocks and hills 
Their lasting silence break, 
And all harmonious human tongues 
Their Saviour's praises speak." 



THE XAME ABOVE EVERT XAME. 93 

One of the first railways nm by electricity' was built out to the 
Giants Causeway^, in the Xorth of Ireland. Once, when riding on 
this car, a gentleman remarked, "This is the most wonderful thing 
in the universe, this running a train by electricity/^ Another gen- 
tleman remarked, "There is one thing that is more wonderful." 
"What is it?" said the other. "That the Lord Jesus Christ should 
love such creatures as we are." They sat in the car and thought 
awhile, and then the first man said, "Yes, the love of Christ is the 
most wonderful thing in the universe, but it was just like him." 
And is this not true to-day that the love of Jesus Christ for way- 
ward mortals is the most wonderful thing that can be imagined by 
the minds of men. 

While I have been speaking I have also been wondering how 
many of you have made the name of Jesus Christ above every name. 
Our text is a very mine of riches, and I have not begun to exhaust 
its fullness. But I desire, in closing, to ask you, personally, how 
many of you have made Christ the supreme factor of your lives? 
How many of you can say to-day, the name of Jesus is to me the 
dearest of all names? There may be those here who have given 
Christ no place thus far in their hearts. Let me exhort you to 
think seriously upon these things, and to let no time pass until you 
shall consider the claims of the Saviour who loved you, and who 
loves you still. Eemember that God does not need to be reconciled 
to you, but you need to be reconciled to God. In the future life, as 
now, the character and the destiny of men will be determined by 
their relation to Jesus Christ. Make his name, now and forever 
more, the name above everv name in vour heart and in vour lives. 



94 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

« 

VII 

HOW TO SAVE SOULS 



By Amzi Clarence Dixon, D. D., 

Isew York 

"Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this 
chariot." — Acts 8: 29. 

THE treasurer of an Ethiopian Queen has heard from the Jews 
living in his country of the great God at Jernsalem, and he 
ha-s gone there to worship. He may have been present on the day 
of the crucifixion. I see him moving with the surging crowd out 
of the gate toward Calvary. He stands by the cross, and looks into 
the wonderful face of the man hanging between two thieves. He 
bears him pray for his enemies and speak words of peace to the 
malefactor at his side. He simply wonders. He is there on the 
day of Pentecost, and I see him approaching John, and sa}dng, 
"Can you give me something to read about this wonderful man 
whom I saw crucified, and who you say has risen from the dead?" 
John replied^ "Get the prophecy of Isaiah and read that." At great 
expense the parchment is purchased, and the treasurer starts home 
in his chariot with his retinue about him.. As he reads aloud after 
the Oriental custom, a man approaches and asks him whether he 
understands what he is reading? "How can I except some one 
should guide me; come up and sit with me in the chariot, and 
explain to me the words of the prophet. Is he speaking of himself, 
or of the man I saw hanging on the cross?" Philip accepts the 
gracious invitation, unfolds to him the way of life, baptizes him, 
and sends him on his way rejoicing. 

N'ow, from this account we may learn, first, some rules to guide 
us in personal work, and, second, some of the difficulties in the way. 




L (g. I 



AMZI CLARENCE DIXON, the son of Rev. Thomas Dixon, Sr., was born 
in Shelby, N. C, July 0, ]So4. In his boyhood he read with great interest 
the sermons of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and through them received an 
inspiration io jn'each the gospel. He confessed Christ at a country meeting 
house when he was eleven years of age, and his father had the joy of bap- 
tizing him in a running mountain stream. His retentive memory gained 
him some arlenlion in the village school, and at fifteen years of age he 
entered Wak.^ Forest College, the Baptist institution of North Carolina, and 
at nineteen was graduated. It was during his senior year that he thor- 
oughly detennined to devote his life to the gospel ministry, although he 
had been studying for the law. 

Mr. Dixon preached his first sermon when he was eighteen years old, and 
accepted his first pastorate at nineteen, and was ordained the same year. 
During the nine months in ^^■hich he served two country churches, just one 
luindred members were added to the membership, while scores of others made 
a public confession of Christ. His next pastorate was at Chapel Hill, the 
seat of the University of North Carolina, and as a result of one meeting, in 
which he prenched e^ery day for more than a month, about one hundred 
students of the university became Christians, many of whom are now lead- 
ing men in the State. He then went to Asheville, N. C, a thriving mountain 
town, and during a meeting of six weeks' duration about three hundred 
converts were made. The town and the surrounding country were stirred 
as never before, \\hile Mr. Dixon was pastor at Asheville he was invited 
by Dr. J. B. Hawthorne, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Rich- 
mond, to spend a month there, preaching every day. The people crowded to 
hear him, and about seventy-five men and women, some of them prominent 
in medicine and trade, were added to the church. 

Through the reputation gained in this meeting a company of Christians 
in Baltimore, Md., invited him to come and lead a church enterprise in a 
new and growing section of the city. They built a small, fine chapel, but 
Mr. Dixon could not endure such contracted work. He therefore preached 
in a large theatre on Sunday afternoons for two or three months to crowds 
of men. His church then built a capacious wooden tabernacle, which was 
soon filled to its utmost capacity. 

While Mr. Dixon Vv'as in Baltimore he attended, through the kindness of 
his church, the World's Sunday-School Convention in London, and at the 
Lord Mayor's reception made the response to the address of welcome for the 
American delegation. A trustee of C. H. Spurgeon's tabernacle was present, 
and was so impressed with this address that he mentioned it to Mr. Spurgeon, 
who at once sent an invitation to Mr. Dixon to occupy the pulpit with him 
the next Sunday morning, and make the opening prayer. He next invited 
him to speak in the week-night meeting in the tabernacle. The gospel mes- 
sage which he delivered was so striking and full of enthusiasm that the 
people, greatly to the surprise of the speaker, heartily applauded. Some 
enthusia;stie friends of Mr. Dixon felt urged, upon the death of Mr. 
Spurgeon, that he ought to be his successor, because he believed and preached 
with freshness and power the old gospel that Spurgeon and his people dearly 
loved. 

From Baltimore ]Mr. Dixon went to Brooklyn, now a part of Greater New 
York, and entered upon the pastorate of the Hanson Place Baptist Church, 
which at that time had a membership of 600. It now has about 1,200. 
However, he did not confine his work to the limits of one church. For three 
or four Acars he was evangelizing in Greater New York and the surrounding 
to\A'ns, ])reaching in Cooper Union Monday afternoons, and in Carnegie Hall 
on Sunday afternoons to crowds of eager listeners. Four years ago he 
preached for several weeks in Niblo's great theatre, on Broadway, New 
York, at the busy hour of noon, to thousands of people. In the gospel cam- 
paign which Mr. Moody led during the World's Fair in Chicago, Mr. Dixon 
spoke for a month with John McNeil eveiy day at noon in the Central 
Music Hall, and drew crowds to other halls and churches in the evening. 

It is plain that Mr. Dixon had the ear of the gospel-loving portion of 
Greater New York. Hundreds come to hear him Avho care little for the 
Qospol. nnd roiiir]i to liear again. 



HOW TO SAVE SOULS. 97 



RULES 



Eule 1. Yield yourself completely to the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit and do what he directs. PMlip had been preacliiiig in the 
great city of Samaria; thousands had come to hear him, and hun- 
dreds had been converted. The Holy Spirit directs him to leave 
this crowded city and go into an uninhabited place. I can see the 
puzzled face of Philip as he tries to explain to himself why God 
wants him where there are no people. He might have said, the 
trees and stones and sand of the wilderness do not need any preach- 
ing. I should remain where there are crowds of people who are 
willing to hear me. But I do Philip an injustice. Xo such puz- 
zled expression sat on his face. He went without questioning just 
where the Spirit guided ; and, if you want to be a soul winner, you 
must yield yourself without reserve to the leading of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Eule 2. Put yourself on a level ivith the one you approach^ and 
enter into sympathy with him. The eunuch was reading the Scrip- 
tures and Philip began to talk with him about the subject in hand. 
He sat beside him physically and intellectually in the chariot. In 
this he was following the example of Jesus. To the woman at the 
well with the water pitcher in hand, he talked about the water of 
life, and urged her to drink, that she might not thirst again. To 
the woman fresh from the kitchen he spoke of the leaven that 
leaveneth the whole lump. As he walked by the field where the 
farmer was scattering the seed, he gave them the parable of the 
sower. We must give people the truth, and a peg to hang it on, 
a handle to take hold of it with. Learn their channels of thought, 
put the truth into the mind through these channels, and trust God 
to sink it into the heart. 

Eule 3. Preach Jesus. The eunuch was reading the chapter in 
Isaiah which refers to the Messiah, and when you find a man read- 
ing the Bible it is easy to begin at the same Scripture and preach 
unto him Jesus. Philip did not preach simply about Jesus. • We 
may tell where Jesus was born, what he said and did, and yet not 
preach Jesus. Many Sunday-school teachers tell their scholars all 
they know about Jesus, but do not urge them to accept Jesus as 



98 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

their Saviour and Lord. What this rich Ethiopian treasurer needed 
was Jesns, and every sinner on earth, whether he be rich or poor, 
learned or ignorant, black or white, has the same need. It is safe 
to preach Jesus to everybody, for Jesus meets the need of every soul. 

DIFFICULTIES 

It is easier to prepare a sermon and preach it to a crowd than to 
approach an individual and preach to him Jesus. There are more 
difficulties in the way of reaching the individual than of proclaim- 
ing the gospel to the crowd. It takes more courage and wisdom to 
do personal work than to make public addresses, and, sad to say, 
most of us preachers take more delight in public addresses than in 
private soul winning. Let us look at som'C of the difficulties in the 
way of Philip, and they suggest the difficulties that confront us. 

1. The eunuch was a stranger. Philip had never seen him be- 
fore. He belonged to a different nationality; they had little in 
common but sin and the need of a Saviour.. The fact that a man 
is a stranger to you is not always a disadvantage. If your life is 
inconsistent, the less he may know about you the more influence you 
will have with him. This explains why some parents cannot talk 
to their children. The children know them too well. They were 
there when the temper was lost and the sharp, bitter words were 
spoken. They see in the private life the defects of character. This 
explains also why the husband cannot talk to the wife, and the wife 
to the husband; they know each other too well. If there is any 
obstacle in the way of our reaching those who know us best, let us 
at once get rid of it; go to the person who knows you and make 
full confession of your sin, ask forgiveness, and determine by God's 
help hereafter to live as you should. The most impressive thing at 
the funeral of Mr. Moody was the address of his son, W. R. Moody. 
He rose in the audience and said, "I would like to speak a word for 
the family. Our father gave us the happiest home in the world. 
Sometimes he spoke impulsively, and it may be a little sharply to 
the children, but when he did so he always called us up afterwards 
and begged our pardon. That was T>. L. Moody in the home.'' 
And when we heard this testimony from the lips of the son, the 
great evangelist seemed to be greater still. It is noble, friends, to 
confess our faults one to another. If you feel that you have not 



HOW TO SAVE SOULS. 99 

been living as yon shonld before those whom yon love, do not let 
ihe snn go down before yon confess the sin of it and seek their 
salvation. 

In this great city, however, it is encouraging to a Christian 
worker to know that he may be nsed of God in saving the stranger. 
Let not the fact that he is a stranger keep yon from approaching 
him and telling him of Jesns. The Spirit may be moving npon 
his heart as npon the heart of the ennnch in preparing the way. 

2. The ennnch was preoccupied. He was ver}' bnsy reading the 
Bible, and we were tanght in childhood that it is impolite to 
interrupt one while he is reading. And 3"et Pliilip pressed his way 
through this barrier of preoccupation and preached unto liim Jesus. 
This is a busy age; men and women about us are preoccupied with 
tlieir temporal affairs. Some of them are oppressed with the bur- 
dens of wealth; others with poverty. The business man in his 
office has many callers and c-ares ; shall we go in and thrust ourselves 
upon him while he is thus preoccupied ? We should tell him there 
is one thing more important than making money, and he knows it 
before you tell him. He will honor you for your earnest persist- 
ence. While I was preaching in a Southern city several years 
ago, a young man in the house where I was boarding received a note 
which ran like this: "My dear friend, I have accepted the Lord 
Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and I want to join th-e church; come 
around and tell me how to go about it.'' That note was sent by 
the manager of a great tobacco factory. On the previous Saturday 
evening a group of young men prayed for his conversion, and one 
of them said to the others, ^*Boys, Monday morning at ten minutes 
past ten o'clock I am going to our friend's office to urge him to 
become a Christian ; pray for me now, and pray for me at that time, 
that the Spirit of God may go with me." Promptly at ten minutes 
past ten o'clock on Monday morning the young man entered the 
office of the busy manager and found him seated on his high stool 
busy with his ledger. "Can you give me five minutes this morn- 
ing?" he asked. "What do you want?" was the reply. "Do you 
want to talk religion to me?" "0 never mind, you give me five 
minutes." "All right, go ahead; I can stand it if you can." The 
earnest young Christian took a little Testament from^ his pocket 
L.cfC. 



100 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and, opening it, placed his finger upon a verse and read : "This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners/' "Now, my friend," he con- 
tinued, "we boys have been pra^dng for you a long time, and I have 
come around to tell you that I am a sinner saved by Christ, and I 
want to see you saved also. Good morning." The manager of the 
tobacco factory was not happy during that day ; the figures became 
confused before him. He said to himself, that young man is in 
earnest, and I will become a Christian as I ought; and from that 
day to this he has been one. 

3. The eunuch was a man of high position. He was a member 
of the cabinet of a Queen; conventionalities surrounded him and 
shut him off from' the common people. It is easy for us to talk to 
children, for whose opinion we care little, or to the tramp on the 
street, whose rebuff will not hurt us. It is harder to go into the 
company of men and v/omen who are high in social position, sur- 
rounded by the luxuries of wealth and the dignities of honor, but 
Philip, with the spirit of God upon him, did not stand back on 
this account. He was as bold to speak to the treasurer of the 
Queen as to the rabble in Samaria. The externals of worldly posi- 
tion did not count much with Philip ; an immortal soul was every- 
thing. It is the fashion to abuse certain wicked men in high 
position, but how many of us have prayed for them, and talked to 
them about their souFs salvation? 

A certain political leader in INTew York City has been during the 
last fifteen years criticised and abused by almost every pastor in 
public and private. How many of us have gone to him and 
preached unto him Jesus ? I knew one mian who did.. While Mr. 
Moody was stopping at the Murray Hill Hotel, he learned that this 
political leader was in the house, and he went to himi with an 
invitation to attend church, and he urged upon him the importance 
of personal salvation. The much abused political boss listened with 
great attention, and thanked the evangelist for the interest that he 
took in him. If we talked less about men, and more about Jesus, 
it would be better for us and for them and for tlie kingdom of God. 
Let no position of great wealth, political honor, or social standing 



HOW TO SAVE SOULS. 101 

prevent us from approaching people when the Spirit maves us to 
CO so, and telling them of the great salvation. 

4. The eunuch was doubtless a moral man. We read this be- 
tween the lines. Men who are dishonest are not apt to be intrusted 
with funds. He may have been vicious in his private life, but if 
he was, there is no record of it. The fact that he went up to 
Jerusalem to worship, and that he was reading his Bible, is a pre- 
sumption that he was a decent sort of fellow. The moral man 
often puts his morality between him and God, and hides behind it 
when we approach him in the name of Christ. He has what he 
ought to retain after he becomes a Christian, for the true Christian 
is moral. He has what it is easy for him to substitute for Christ. 
Morality is a good thing in the Church and out of it, and we are 
apt to excuse ourselves for not approaching men of good character 
who are not Christians because we feel that they have much in 
cornxUion with us. And yet morality is not salvation; it is right 
relation with men, but not right relation with G-od. 

A moral man in Brooklyn some time ago was arrested and sent to 
Sing Sing. Years ago he was imm^oral and had been sent to the 
penitentiary for a long term. He took advantage of his liberty 
in connection with the medical department and escaped. He went 
West, married, came to Brooklyn, and was living an honest, indus- 
trious life with his wife and baby. He was arrested and sent back 
to the penitentiary, because, though he was all right with his wife 
and child and the community, he was all wrong with the State of 
Xew York. I hope the Governor pardoned him. But his being 
all right with the community did not make him right with the 
St-ate of !N"ew York, and your being right with men does not make 
you right with God, though when you get right with God you are 
certain to get right with men. Jesus Christ died on the cross that 
you might be reconciled to God ; that is, brought into right relation 
with a just God. Paul wrote the letter to the Eomans to prove 
tiiat righteousness primarily is not right doing, but right relation, 
and all our right doing is "filthy rags" until through Jesus Christ 
we come into right relation with God. 

Though we may honor the moral man, and esteem his friendship, 
we should be kind enough to him to give him something better 



102 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

than his morality. There come times in one's life when morality 
cannot comfort. Look at that homie where the only child has died. 
The father is a moral man. Shall I tell him now of his miorality ? 
Shall I read to him the ten commandments, and assure him that 
he has kept them all? It wonld he like piercing his soul with a 
dagger of ice. What he needs now is a sympathizing, loving, tender 
Saviour, one who weeps with those that weep. It is a great unkind- 
ness in Christians to leave moral men with only their morality for 
their comfort in sorrow. 

5. The eunuch was also a religious man. He had been up to 
Jerusalem to worship. He believed in God. His worship was no 
sham. Man is a religious animal before he becomes a Christian, 
and sometimes he is brimful of religious emotion.. But religion 
does not save ; it may even curse. Next to sin, religion has cursed 
the nations. It is the religion of Chdna and India and Africa that 
Christ must overcome before he can reign in the hearts of the 
people. Our religious nature needs to be purified. It is a sad 
fact that intense religiousness often dwells in the same person with 
uncleanness. Last sumaner I was a guest for a week in the home 
of the superintendent of a great lunatic asylum, and he told me that 
the patients who were afflicted with religious mania were the foulest 
persons in his institution. He could not understand why, but 
simply stated the fact. But the explanation is simple enough. 
Eeligion- with Christ in it will lift a man heavenward; religion 
without Christ will drag him downward. Eeligion is either a wing 
or a weight ; it purifies or befouls. 'Now, when we find that a man 
is religious, we are apt to let him alone. Wliy should Philip 
preach Jesus to a man who has been to the temple, and is now 
reading the Bible ? And why should I go to my friend who attends 
church regularly, enjoys good maisic, admires splendid architecture 
and is at home with religious people? Ask him whether or not the 
blood is on the door post of his heart, whether he has accepted 
Jesus Christ as his Saviour from sin, and his reply will indicate 
whether you need to urge upon him the importance of personal 
salvation. 

Some of the most religious people are offended by the cross. 
They like it on the top of their steeples, but not in their lives. 



HOW TO »AVE SOULS. 103 

They admire the attributes of Jesus, but they will not stand by 
Calvary and weep for their sin5. They are trying to save them- 
selves by imitating a good man, while they need to ^'behold the 
Lamb of G-od that taketh away the sin of the world." These most 
religious people are in greatest need of a Saviour, and they are the 
ones that need to be approached and talked with personally. They 
listen to the public sermon and pass its searching truth on to 
others. The Pharisees who heard Jesus were intensely reKgious, 
while they were like "whited sepulchres, fair without, and within 
rottenness and dead men's bones." 

6. The eunuch misunderstood the Scripture. He was mj^tified 
as he read. Puzzling questions filled his mind. And there are not 
a few people to-day who refuse to accept Christ because they cannot 
imderstand all the Bible. Years ago a young man rose in a meet- 
ing asking for prayer. I made an engagement with him for a 
conversation at a certain hour. Xext day he came with a sad face, 
and I asked him his difficulty. "Well,'' said he, "T have been 
troubled a long time about the question as to where Cain found his 
-wdfe." This young man was a student in the university, and was 
letting the devil cheat him out of his soul with such quibbling. 
And when I answered that question, I found there were still other 
questions just as frivolous waiting for solution. There is much 
about the Bible that we cannot understand even after we have ac- 
cepted Christ and received spiritual discernment. There is scarcely 
anything we can understand until we have surrendered to Jesus. 
Christ is himself the best interpreter of his word. A man came to 
Mr. Moody with a long list of questions. The blunt evangelist said, 
"I will answer your questions to-morrow if you will promise to 
me one thing." "^'What is it?" asked the man. "I will not tell 
you unless you will promise to try to do it." '^'0, well, I will try." 
"G-ive yourself to Christ," replied Mood}', "'and then come to me 
with your questions." The man went to the meeting next day to 
tell Mr. Moody that he had taken his advice, and now he had no 
questions to ask. All of them had been answered by his surrender 
to Jesus. 



104 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 



VIII 

CHEISTMAS AND HUMAN JOY 

[A Meditation for Christmas Morning'] 



By James Taylor Dickinson, D. D., 

New Jersey 

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good 
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." — Luke 2: 10. 

THAT is a pleasant little incident, touched both, with humor 
and spiritual suggestiveness, in Lord Tennyson's Memoir, of 
how the great poet, visiting some humble friends of earlier ^^ears 
in the country, asked an old woman concerning the news. Her 
answer was, "Why, Mr. Tennyson, there's only one piece of news 
that I know — that Christ died for all men." Tennyson answered, 
"That is old news, and good news, and new news." So now, as 
the calm, bright light of the Christmas time shines into our lives, 
we are reminded that the supreme messages of the Christian facts 
and the Christian faith are old, 3^et ever to be translated into new 
experiences of the soul, and thus to become the best tidings possible 
for an immortal spirit. One old yet ever new and blessed truth 
is the ministry of Christmas to the joy of humanity. The intuition 
cii little children and of the average normal man seizes hold of the 
truth in the greeting, "Merry Christmas." This is a thought which 
colors with beauty the memories of childhood which come to the 
aged. This is the ground of hope for the race in the sober think- 
ing of philosopher and philanthropist — the historic fact that in 
most real and glorious sense Cod has through the Incarnation 
identified himself with humanity. The dominant note in the Scrip- 




^iii T. 



JAMES TAYLOR DICKINSON, of Orange, N. J., was born in Richmond, 
Va., August 4, 1861. .His father is Rev. A. E. Dickinson, D. D., the editor of 
the Religious Herald, published at Richmond, Va., and his mother, who died 
in October, 1879, was the daughter of Rev. James B. Taylor, D. D., and a 
woman of rare intellectual and spiritual beauty. The direct ancestors of 
Mr. Dickinson have been for six generations eminent Christian ministers, 
his great-grandfather. Rev. Elisha Williams, of Beverley, INIass., having been 
an aide of Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and 
afterwards a A^ery useful Baptist minister. James T. Dickinson was bap- 
tized into the membership of the Grace- Street Baptist Church, Richmond, 
in his thirteenth year. He was educated at Richmond College, the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of Virginia. He was only 
■eighteen years of age the last session spent at Richmond College, and had 
no idea then of ever being a preacher. A year in business helped to bring 
truer views of life and duty and the Christian religion, and after many 
spiritual struggles the decision was reached to enter the ministry, if the 
counsels of old and wise friends should approve. In September, 1882, he 
entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Ky., hav- 
ing supplied the pulpits of Lyles and Fluvanna churches, in Virginia, during 
the preceding six months. Mr. Dickinson graduated with the full diploma 
of the seminary in June, 1885, having not simply graduated in all the 
schools, but also taking several "extra" or post-graduate studies. He was 
ordained at the Grace-Street Church, Richmond, Va,, .Tune 28, 1885, the 
large ordination council being composed chiefly of those who had known 
him from childhood. During his last session at the seminary he supplied 
for the East Church, Louisville, and was invited to become its permanent 
pastor, but preferred to accept a call to the pastorate of Lyles, Fluvanna, 
and County Line churches, Virginia. He preached at these on alternate Sun- 
days while residing at the L^^niversity of Virginia and taking a special course 
in moral philosophy under Prof. Noah K. Davis. In January, 1886, Mr. 
Dickinson received a cordial and unanimous invitation to the pastorate of 
the North Orange Baptist Church, of Orange, N. J., a beautiful city of homes 
near New York. This call was accepted, and the union then consummated 
still abides in tightening bonds of love and service. God has given wonder- 
ful blessings and a noble church has quickly responded to the Divine leadings. 
Hundreds have been baptized, and contributions to various fonns of mis- 
sionaiy benevolence have been among the largest of any Baptist church in 
the United States. A new church and two new missions have been started 
ir Orange, about fifty thouisand dollars have been expended on enlarging 
and improving the church edifice, and a delightful spirit of harmony has 
prevailed. The church has now a membership of over nine hundred, and 
maintains three Sunday schools and three sewing schools, 

Mr. Dickinson has never felt inclined to consider favorably invitations to 
other fields, and believes that few pastorates could be happier than the one 
in which he has spent more than fifteen years. The degree of Doctor of 
Divinity was conferred upon him by Richmond College in 1896. 
(106) 



CIIKIvSTMAS AND HUMAN JOY. 107 

ture records of the birth of Christ and the dominant note of onr 
wisest meditation and best faith concerning that event are the same. 
That note is jo}^, spiritual exhilaration, boundless hope. 

The birth of Jesus, the Divine Saviour, is, above all else, the 
source of humanity's richest, purest, nwst widely diffused happi- 
ness. "Good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people," said 
the angel in announcing the birth of Christ, and each hastening 
year is a witness to the message. 

Let us think first of how deep is earth's need of joy., 

There is a natural craving in every heart for happiness. As the 
eye seeks the blue sky and the ear sweet music, so the soul in- 
stinctively reaches out after joy. From God and heaven, the home 
of bliss, came the soul, and it ever longs for its native element. The 
very follies and sins of man, as well as his goodness and high 
aspirations, testify to this deep yearning. But earth cannot give 
real, satisfying joy to an immortal spirit. Earth does give sorrow — 
sorrow from sin, from mistaken judgment, from loneliness, from 
toil, from sense of mystery, from death. Just in proportion as a 
f-oul is noble and finely strung can it suffer. 

Earth's need of peace and gladness was never greater than when 
this message of the angel came. Everywhere were moral corrup- 
tion, intellectual unrest, spiritual gloom, heart-anguish. The quiet 
heavens seemed, in their silent unresponsiveness, to mock the 
prayers of the pious, faithful few. Injustice and savagery and 
lust were enthroned in the high places. There was Herod, with 
his bloody sword; there was the Governor of Judea, to whom the 
holiest memories and hopes of God^s chosen people were but idle 
tales; there was the Imperial City, on the Tiber, where religion, 
home life, the worth of the individual had gone down to seemingly 
irrevocable shame and ruin. Palestine, for many generations the 
theatre of desolating wars, was a land of widx)ws and orphans, of 
pauperism and disease, lying in the shadow of death and despair. 

After the passage of the centuries, humanity's need is just as 
great, even greater, for intellectual and spiritual progress only 
deepen and intensify yearnings and aspirations that reach beyond 
cfirth. Here still are the countless petty annoyances that chafe 



108 THE AMERICAISr BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the soul. Here still are the deeper sorrows that neither the lofty 
nor the lowly can escape. Here still are 

" Questioningi3 
Of sense and outward things, 
Fallings from us, vanishings; 
Blank misgivings of a Creature 
Moving about in worlds not realized." 

And with us still is the problem of sin. How awful the problem 
and how dark, both for the individual and the race ! It flings a 
black shadow over the past, it embitters the sweet waters of the 
present, it hangs loweringly over the future. In the ultimate 
analysis, the throbbing heart of all the pathos and the tragedy in 
literature and in life, from David to Tennyson, from Paul to 
Browning, will be found to be sin, nuoral and spiritual dereliction. 

But on this shadowed background of earth's need, how brightly 
gleams the Christmas joy ! Read again this very day the gospel 
narratives of the birth of Jesus and see how a light that never was 
on land or sea transfigures the mother mild, the little babe, the 
patient Joseph, the worshipping shepherds, and the poor Bethlehem 
manger. Count the times the angels say to anxious hearts, "Fear 
not." Let the two great words linked with this Saviour's work sink 
into your troubled heart — peace and joy. He, the Divine Re- 
deemer, came to bring us into peace and joy, here and now, and to 
bring peace and joy into us, into the central forces of our lives.' 

As a historical fact, the Advent of Christ was a fresh incoming 
of such joy to the world as earth had never knowTi. So familiar 
are we with the blessings which he brought that we seldom pause to 
think that they are the direct sequences of his birth and life and 
great gospel of salvation. What are some of the streams of human 
joy that flow from this heavenly fountain whose crystal waters 
broke forth in little Bethlehem? 

In general, it is a sublime fact, which all historical investigation 
corroborates, that with the coming of Christ into the world came 
also a new and majestic invigoration of all that was noblest in life 
and the addition of heavenly truths and forces never before known 
among men. Hospitals, asylums for the distressed, schools sprang 
up in the wake of the gospel. Singing and music, which had sunk 



CHRISTMAS AND HUMAN JOY. 109 

to low and mournful measures, rose to high, exultant strains, so 
that one of the most striking characteristics of the early Christians 
to the heathen world was their songfulness. Eusebius, the ancient 
church historian, writes af how "from the beginning" the persecuted 
disciples poured out their souls in h}'mns of praise to Christ, "call- 
ing him God.'^ Tertullian, writing about the year 200, tells of 
how family-life, formerly anguish-smitten, is now songful with 
gladness, between husband and wife "psalms and hymns resound- 
ing as they mutually strive who shall best praise their God/^ 

l^ew value to the individual was brought by Christ, so that all 
glorious possibilities were opened up to the humhlest men and 
women and little children, and the}^ could not but rejoice. A new 
meaning was given to love. Motherhood and childhood and home- 
life, and friendship, and the brotherhood of humanity — all re- 
ceived a fresh and heavenly interpretation, from which flowed sweet 
and solemn joy. This great and glad transfiguration of human love 
came as the sequence of the new revelation Christ gave of God^s 
love. 'No rich joy is possible for the heart unless there be a rich 
and joyful conception of God. Our souls are made for God, "in- 
curably religious," as Sabatier says, and cannot be normal or noble 
or glad until they rest in faith and hope upon the Almighty Father. 
Plence, the ever-present sadness and gloom and terror of heathen 
V;nds. ISTot from nature and not from conscience comes a knowl- 
edge of Divine compassion and forgiveness. 

" Till God in human flesh I see 

My thoughts no comfort find; 
The holy, just and sacred Three 
Are terrors to my mind." 

But the birth of Jesus tells forevermore of the yearning of God 
after the children of men, reveals a Father's heart on the throne 
of eternity, interprets creation and sustaining power and law and 
providence, and even retribution, in terms of measureless love.. 
Here, indeed, is a fullness of joy which ravishes the souls of those 
to whom it comes with newness of delight. \Aniat a witness to the 
power of this truth to lift up the soul we find in the amazing work 
of the McAll Mission, in France. The masses in France had almost 



110 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

lost the knowledge of a loving, redeeming God. Dr. McAll, when 
he began his work, in the hiimhlest way conceivable, could only 
translate and speak in the French three words, but those words 
were ^^God loves you." This has ever b^en the one message of that 
remarkable enterprise, and the response to that message has been 
so spontaneous and thrilling in its gladness as to be almost pathetic. 

The Bethlehem birth tells us that the Divine thought touches 
e\ery phase of human life and holds it precious. The Divine Son 
became a man, entered into human toil and joy and sorrow. What 
Christ felt and did in his brief earthly ministry, in his relationship 
to m,an, that we are sure is God's attitude to the race always, and 
at: the Divine Son entered into human conditions for a season, for- 
evermore are those conditions lifted up into all noble possibilities. 
The ever-present Christ, that glorious One who became a man and 
dwelt among us, still is here, still dwells where men preach and 
pray, yes, and wherever honest work is done and true hearts follow 
duty's star or bravely meet a tliicket of difficulties. 

The Divine Immanence — ^this is one truth of recent emphasis 
fitted to enkindle perpetual cheer which the Incarnation long ago 
t?ught. "Lo, I am with you always" — beneath the rapture of the 
assurance men have sung at the stake, plunged into heathen dark- 
ness and death, been faithful in the least and most obscure places. 
He who in any true sense comprehends the meaning of the birth of 
our Lord never thinks of it as "a past, a dead relation" to human- 
ity, but as a present force, a dynamic power, an abundant life 
spreading, multiplying, intensifying, and giving of its gracious 
peace and power to every receptive soul in every phase of life. 

But the highest height of the joy to which humanity is lifted 
through the birtli in Bethlehem the angelic message makes em- 
phatio — "m\. Saviour, for he shall save his people from their sins." 
Solve the problem of sin and other problems will vanish. Man is 
more than body, more than intellect ; man is conscious, willing, and 
usually, alas, self-willing, sinning spirit. The question of the cen- 
turies with every thoughtful soul has been to banish the hobgoblin 
of one's erring past, to energize the present with purity and truth, 
to keep the future from being a copy of the past. But how ? Said 
the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, "Perhaps God can for- 



CHKISTMAS AND HUMAN JOY. Ill 

give ^in, but I do not see how/' I\ ow comes the message of the 
angels — Divine pardon, strength, power for all through the life and 
death and ever-present life of the Son of Mary, the Son of God. 
Then comes man's best joy and exhilaration. Out from the prison- 
house of remorse and evil habit and weakened will, he is led to fair 
fields and blue skies and singing birds, but the brightness and song 
within his heart are greater far than any glory without. Well 
might a famous and once savage Indian chieftain say in describing 
the rapturous gladness that filled his heart after accepting Christ's 
salvation : "On that day the world seemed all new and fresh to me. 
It seemed like a new creation. I looked around, and the trees and 
fields were so green, the lake was so blue, the sunshine so bright, 
the sky so glad! Oh, that was a handsome day on which God for 
Christ's sake forgave my sins !" Well might the great scientist 
who discovered chloroform reply as he did to one who inquired, 
"What was your greatest discover}^. Sir James?" He responded, 
"That I am a sinner and that Jesus Christ is my Saviour." 

Well may the poet write of the dimming of the soul's vision to 
all beauty by sin and of the unveiling of all forms of delight to him 
who knows Christ's peace : 

" If sin be in the heart 
The fairest sky is foul, and sad the summer weather, 
The eye no longer sees the lambs at play together, 
The dull ear cannot hear the birds that sing so sweetly. 
And all the joy of God's good earth is gone completely. 
If sin be in the heart. 

If peace be in the heart 
The wildest winter storm is full of beauty. 
The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of duty, 
Each living creature tells some new and joyous story, 
The very trees and stones all cast a ray of glory. 

If peace be in the heart." 

Well may that heart, which by true adoring faith has laid hold 
upon the strong Son of God, rejoice on Christmas Day and on all 
the days. Let us kindle anew, then, the fires of love and faith and 
hope in our hearts. Eather let us, in fresh and humble consecra- 
tion, bring our hearts to the Divine Lover of the soul and he will 



112 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

rekindle the fires. True, we have not much to bring him. We are 
not wise men, as were they who of old from the East followed the star 
and presented rich offerings to the Saviour. All we have to give 
him, some of us may think, is frankincense, the sweet-bitter tribute 
of repentant faith. But he will gladly receive whatever comes from 
sincere hearts and will plant the flower of peace in our troubled 
lives, will put songs on our lips, will give contentment and courage 
and glad exhilaration. 

Let us carry the Bethlehem joy to others. That is a tender inci- 
dent of a delicate woman of fine fibre and rich Christian faith 
who lost all her property, and yet whose influence was more far- 
reaching after her misfortunes than before. One day she gave the 
philosophy of her radiant spirit by telling of the transfiguration of 
her soul through the daily vision of the living Christ and of her 
resolution to be a joy-giver. She said: "You know I lost all my 
money. I had nothing to give but myself and so I made the reso- 
lution that I would never sadden any one else with my troubles. 
I have laughed when I could have wept. I have always smiled in 
the face of every misfortune. I have tried never to let any one 
go from my presence without a happy word or bright thought to 
carry with them. And happiness makes happiness. I myself am 
happier than I would hav.e been had I sat down and bemoaned 
my fate." 

Heaven give us this spirit — the true Christmas spirit — and then 
shall we give of it to the waiting world. So, the Christmas anni- 
versary tells each man and woman and little child of redemption 
from sin, of hope for the future, of a joy beyond all joy, because 
of the measureless love and wisdom of Almighty God. It tells us 
to love and forgive, to trust and be calm, to see the golden thread 
of God's purpose in all the warp and woof of life, to be quite sure 
that this is God^s world, to face each day with steady courage, to 
open the heart to all high and beautiful thoughts, and so to 
perpetuate within our souls the heavenly joy that throbbed in all 
the incidents of the Saviour's birth. 



KERR BOYCE TUPPER was born in Washington, Ga., Februarv 2, 1854, 
his home being one of unusual refinement and culture. His father is Rev. 
H. A. Tupper, D. D., the distinguished Professor of Bible History in Rich- 
mond College, Virginia, and his mother the sister of Rev. James P. Boyce, 
D. D., LL.D., the founder and President of the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary. At the age of thirteen, young Tupper entered Mercer University, 
Georgia, and graduated with distinction when seventeen. He entered the 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at eighteen and graduated when 
twenty-one; immediately after which he succeeded, in 1875, as pastor of the 
First Baptist Church at Charlottesville, Va., Rev. J. C. Long, D. D., who 
had been elected to a Crozer professorship. Mr. Tupper remained at Char- 
lottesville for three years, and was next pastor in Paducah, Ky. In 1885 
he accepted the pastorate of Fountain-Street Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., 
whose membership under him grew to over one thousand. After five years 
here he was called to the First Baptist Church, Denver, Col., and accepted, 
where he was exceptionally successful. In 1896 Dr. Ttipper became pastor 
of the historic First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, whose honored pastor 
for more than thirty years had been Dr. George Dana Boardman. This 
church, which in 1899 celebrated its two hundredth anniversary, was an 
important factor in establishing such institutions as the American Baptist 
Missionary Cnion, the Woman's jSTational Indian Association, Brown Uni- 
versity, the Philadelphia Home for Incurables, and the Baptist Orphanage 
of Philadelphia. The church during Dr. Tuppers pastorate has erected 
perhaps the handsomest house of worship in Philadelphia, at a cost of 
8350,000; has laid aside $150,000 for endo^nnent and $110,000 for the Poor 
Fund. The church has a membership of ijQOO and the pastor is given three 
assistants. On November 15, 1875, Dr. Tupper married Miss Lucille H. 
Sloan, of South Carolina, a most attractive and gifted woman, and three 
children having been born to them, the home life of the family is excep- 
tionally beautiful and happy. Dr. Tupper is an attractive and instructive 
preacher, and in each of his charges his ministry has been attended by great 
niunbers of hearers, who have not only listened with eager interest, but have 
been strengthened and built up in Christian character. He has become 
widely known as an attractive lecturer, showing appreciative study of litera- 
ture and history, as well as strong and intelligent interest in the social and 
ethical questions of the time. His sermons and addresses are carefully pre- 
pared with hard and regular study, but are delivered without a note and 
with impressive eloquence. He carries his gifts in a most winning per- 
sonality, gathering friends about him everywhere he goes, and his success as 
a pastor in winning souls to the church and building up his charges in all 
ways has been very great. He received the degree of D. D. from Central 
University, Iowa, in 1886, and that of LL.D. from Mercer University in 
1897. Among the volumes he has published are "Robertson's Living 
Thoughts,'' "'Seven Great Lights," '"Life of Diaz," a "Popular Treatise on 
Baptism," and "Gladstone and Other Addresses." He is also one of the 
editors of the large work entitled "Baptist Achievements in the Nineteenth 
Century." 
(113) 




lEm M®KE lUWEU, i. ro= LLP, 



THE CHURCH CF THE FUTURE. llo 

IX 

THE CHUECH OF THE FUTUEE 



By Kerr Botce Ttjpper, D. D., LL. D., 
Pennsylvania 

"And the kingdom and the dominion,, and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions 
shall serve and obey Him." — Daniel 7: 27. 

ABOUND the Grand Mosqne of Damascus tliere clusters a vast 
accumulation of history. On the spot where it stands to-day, 
after a lapse of nearly fourteen hundred 3^ears, there was originally 
erected, in the first century of our era, a heathen temple. In the 
middle of the fourth century this temple was destroyed b}" the 
Eoman general, Theodosius the Great, and on its ruins, in the 
beginning of the fifth centur}^, Arcadius, the elder son of Theo- 
dosius, built a Christian house of worship. This latter house, 
though for three hundred years the CathedTal of Damascus, became 
in the eighth century- a ^loslem possession, and for some thousand 
years now it has been used as a Mohammedan mosque. No visit to 
Damascus is quite complete without a sight of this historic old 
structure. The most interesting feature, however, of this curious 
building is not its age, nor its histor}-, nor its present prominence, 
but rather a single sentence engraved above the vestibule. The 
inscription is in Greek characters, and reads thus : "Thy kingdom, 
Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth 
throughout all generations.^' There, on a Mohammedan mosque, 
and after ten centuries of ^loslem occupation, cut deep in the 
enduring rock, the Christian record remains — a record of faith, of 
hope, of confidence, on the part of the Damascus Christians in the 



116 THE AMEllICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ultimate tmimph of the kingdom of God. And well so; for what 
a history the Church of God had presented even in that far away 
day ! How glorious ! How chequered ! Bravely, boldly, it had 
marched out of Judea, where truth and life were provincial, even 
centripetal, into all the regions of the earth, the conqueror even 
of the throne of the Ca?sars. In this early fourth century, I say, 
this ancient and venerable, this Divine and everlasting empire of 
Jesus had gone forth conquering and to conquer with mighty power 
and majestic sway; and God's children in tlmt distant period had 
faith that not only would it longer exist and persist, but, also, grow 
and expand in beauty, glory and power. No wonder the stone- 
embalmed faith of these heroic spirits, "Thy kingdom, Christ, 
is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout 
all generations." 

As we, brethren in Christ, stand to-day on the threshold of the 
twentieth centur}^ of our Christian era, the confident faith of the 
Damascenes is our abiding faith. Almost two thousand years have 
rolled away since our Lord and Master opened in Bethlehem: the 
marvelous scene of Divinity in humanity, and still the Church of 
his grace abides. Other kingdoms have perished, mowed down 
ruthlessly by the resistless scythe of tim.e — Babylon, Media, Mace- 
donia, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Rome — each' swept away almost 
as though it had never flourished, while the Church of God, founded 
on the Rock by Marj^s Son, lives and grows. What strong and 
startling transitions of history — from' one ancient dominion to 
another; from Judaism to Christianity; from Greek thought to 
Roman institution; from Roman to barbarian imperialism; from 
an extreme renaissance of letters in the fifteenth century to the 
religious recoil of the sixteenth century; from IMiddle Age Holy 
Roman empire to modern nationalism; from Feudalism's fall to 
French license of liberty; and from Parisian republicanism to 
American federal democracy. Through all tliis the Church of God 
has passed, surviving the age of barbarism, surviving the restoration 
of letters, surviving the period of free thought and skepticism, 
surviving the attacks of sword and argument, until to-day, because 
of its inherent and tremendous vitality, we find laid at its feet the 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 117 

intellectual assent and the spiritual consent of tke world's strongest 
thinkers and purest characters. 

And the Church of the future will be more glorious than the 
Church of the past. In a peculiarl}' fascinating address by perhaps 
the most gifted and accomplished of nineteenth century states- 
men — indeed, as I recall, it was among the last public utterance of 
the great, good man, whose ashes Westminster Abbey has recently 
received — there was spoken before a s}Tnpathetic and enthusiastic 
audience this ringing, royal sentence: "Let us believe and know 
that Christianity is advancing all the time; that, though men's 
hearts may fail them through fear, the Church goes on in God- 
guided and irresistible movements." To this happy conclusion of 
William Ewart Gladstone must come every intelligent, appreciative 
student of history. The world grows better from century to cen- 
tury because God reigns supreme from generation to generation. 
0\ving to Christianit}-'s hold upon the world, we see progress and 
mjprovement everwhere and in all directions — in material condi- 
tions, in social relations, in philanthropic endeavors, in educational 
movements, in moral elevation, in Christian growth and attain- 
ment. Human history, as another has finely said, is not a "de- 
scending and downward spiral, but an ascending and upward 
spiral," going by sure evolutionar}' processes from the less to the 
great, from the good to the better, gathering past efforts for the 
production of larger and nobler harvests, or, as the optimistic poet, 
\ATiittier, so well puts it : 

" All the good the past has had 
Remains to make our own time glad." 

Impressed with this profound conviction, let us speak and hear 
on this occasion, with gratitude, faith and hope, of "The Church 
of the Future" ; and the Church of the Future in its relation to six 
distinct doctrines and duties — Worship, the Bible, Jesus Christ, 
Sociolog}', Christian Unity and World-wide Evangelization. Each 
of these has vital relation to personal character, social beauty, 
ecclesiastical development and Christian attainment. Upon each 
of these we can, of course, only touch in the present discussion. 

I. In the first place, what will be the attitude of the Church of 



118 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the Future in relation to the Public Worship ? With all confidence 
may we not say that, come what may, the Church will never cease 
to worship? The worshipful impulse is as deep as it is universal, 
is pervasive as it is prevalent. The ancients used to say, "This 
world is not for him who is not a worshipper." Worshipfulness is 
a diiferentiating characteristic of the rightly constituted soul. In 
his "Elements of Eeligion," Canon Liddon has an inspiring chapter 
on this theme, in which he points out how upon desert plains and 
wild promontories and in gorgeous temples priesthood and kings 
and multitudes have taken prayer for granted as being the most 
practical, as well as the most interesting and solemn, concern of 
life. It is said that Pericles, the distinguished Athenian statesman, 
was in the habit of introducing many of his public addresses with 
devout worship. Plato gives it as his conviction that "the best and 
noblest actions which a virtuous man can perform, and those which 
will most promote his success in life, is to live by vows and prayers 
in constant intercourse with the godfe." 

And yet in no system of religion have prayer and praise a posi- 
tion of such importance and dignity as in the Christian religion. 
And this instinctive worshipful impulse will be more intelligently 
educated and more reverently developed in the future days of 
Christianity's evolution. With the advancing years will come to 
the Church of God clearer visions and broader outlooks and a 
deepened sense of righteousness, with profounder awe in the pres- 
ence of spiritual realities ; and along with tliis there cannot fail to 
be introduced a more noble, God-pleasing, eternity-piercing worship 
in the hearts of God's children ; more of reverence and less of ritual- 
ism ; more of simplicity and less of the spectacular ; more of humil- 
ity and less of hollowness; more of fellowship and less of formality; 
more of real life-servioe and less of mere lip-service; everywhere 
the conviction growing that "God cares more for the breaking heart 
of a returning prodigal than for all the misereres of chanting 
])harisees." 

The Church of the future, I say, will be more reverent toward 
God and truth than the Church of the past, catching more and more 
of the spirit of the higher intelligences of the universe, as in 
number ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thou- 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 119 

sands they fall down in amazement and mtli glorified rapture and 
ecstasy inexpressible ascribe honor and glory and majesty and do- 
minion and power to him that sitteth upon the throne and nnto 
the Lamb forever. What a magnificent spectacle of celestial glory 
as the courts of heaven ring and resound, beat and surge with their 
adoring acclamations ! And shall not we, even, here on earth be- 
come more and more filled with the same adbration and praise as 
from' hearts that believe and love we shout forth the exultant song, 
"Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, 
as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without 
end. Amen!'^ Truly, with the enlarged and deepened spiritual 
culture of the Church must come more devout hearts, more reverent 
worship, more inspiring uplift of the spirit into fellowship with 
God through effective service. "God is a Spirit, and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

II. In the second place, what will be the attitude of the Church 
of the Future in relation to the Bible, as the final and authoritative 
revelation of God's will and way to men? Well may we ask this 
question, for of all the books that fill our libraries and inspire our 
hearts, this is the most wonderful. It is the fullest and richest 
thesaurus of Divine wisdom and human knowledge, in genesis and 
genius, in plan and purpose, in trend and teaching, in effluence and 
end as far above all mere human productions as the sky is above the 
clouds that drift beneath it — in poetry above Iliad and Odyssey, 
Milton's odes and Shakespeare's plays; in history above Livy and 
Tacitus, Hallam and Hume ; in philosophy above Bacon and Hamil- 
ton, Descartes and Locke; in biography above Plutarch and Lamar- 
tine, Remusat and "Voltaire; in romance above George Eliot and 
Scott, Bulwer and Thackeray; in Christian meditation and morality 
above Thomas a'Kempis' "Imitation of Christ" and Bunyan's "Pil- 
grim," Pascal's "Thoughts" and Hooker's "Homilies." Great and 
good as are many, if not all, of these immortal works — some of 
them rising like lofty mountain peaks to catch and present to the 
world the highest gleams of human genius — we could willingly see 
them and all else of man's production burned into ashes or buried 
in the sea, if at their expense we might save to our hearts and lives, 
in time and in eternity, this one book whose author is God, 'whose 



120 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

subject is man, whose object is salvation. Hear Tennyson as he 
declares that "others may hang rapturously on the flowing eloquence 
of Plato, and Homer's classic verse, and Seneca's sententious lore," 
but adds he, 

" Not these, but Judah's hallowed bards, to me 
Are dear: Isaiah's noble energj^; 
The tempered grief of Job ; the artless sham 
Of Ruth and pastoral Amos; the high songs 
Of David; and the tale of Joseph's wrongs 
Simply pathetic, eloquently plain." 

All books are of two classes — books made from other books, and 
books from which other books are made' — and to the latter class in 
a pre-eminent degree belongs this work of God. isot a single 
volume, but sixty^six volumes; not a single author, but forty 
authors; not the prodnict of a single year, but of sixteen hundred 
years; not with one birthplace, but with many birthplaces — on the 
bank of the K'ile, in the Arabian desert, in the Land of Promise, 
in Asia Minor, in classic Greece, in imperial Eome; not dealing 
with a single theme, but with all themes, biography and ethics, 
philosophy and poetry, romance and religion; not the offspring of 
human mind, but of him in whom are gathered all the treasures of 
wdsdom and knowledge. "Geneva," said TalhTand, speaking with 
scorn, "Geneva is the grain of musk that perfumes all Europe." 
More than this is this Divine oracle, even the power that molds and 
guides the destinies of all the nations that stand in the front rank 
of ci^dlization. 

And at this present time, as it seems to the truest and most intel- 
ligent supporters of the Old Book, things are shaping themselves 
as never before for unwonted and unlimited victories for the Word 
of God. A gifted author has recently called attention of the Chris- 
tiaa world to five facts and conditions, which, as he well declares, 
are a sure prelude to a superb Biblical renaissance — the publication 
and distribution of the revised Scriptures; the profound delving 
and exhaustive research of liistorical critics; the patient investiga- 
tion of modern science; the recent discovery and exploration of 
ancient cities by faithful archaeologists; and, along with all this, 
the growing intelligence and restlessness of the modern Christian 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 121 

Chiirclij which is rejecting as never before man-made creeds and 
formulas. sons of G-od before me at this hour, fear not the 
controversies now raging about the Bible ! The ages of theological 
agitation and discussion have alwaj^s been ages of progress and 
promise. It is the still waters that breed miasma. It is the 
vessels which lie long at anchor in peaceful harbors that rot or 
rust. Better the agitations of the days of Augustine and Athan- 
asius and Luther than the tranquility of the I^Iiddle Ages. Be- 
cause of present-day controversies and future upheavals many age- 
long interpretations of the Bible m^ust perish, many ancient theories, 
raany human traditions, but the Bible as it came from God will 
abide, 

" Unliurt amid the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." 

Let come all Tubingen school criticism on the Old Testament, 
but the Word of God attacked will, because of its marvelous vitality 
and growing potentiality, remain, like its Author, the same yester- 
da}^, to-day and forever. And with its existence and growth will 
become dearer to the Christian Church than ever in the past such 
fundamental truths as these — the greatness and goodness of God; 
the Divine nature and atoning death and radiant resurrection of 
Jesus Christ; the personality and deityhood of the Holy Spirit; 
the lost condition of man and his need of a renewal from above; 
the souFs free justification before heaven; the spiritual character of 
the Church; the inalienable right of private judgment and con- 
science, and the electrifying hope and fact of eternal life through 
him who said of himself, "I am the resurrection and the Life; he 
that believeth in me, even though he were dead, yet shall he live." 

III. In the third place, what will be the attitude of the Church of 
the Future, in relation to Jesus Christ, God's Son and man's 
Saviour ? 

Here we confront a problem of Christianity, than which no 
greater can ever arise. It deals with the Divine Lord of G-lory: 
his miraculous incarnation, his spotless character, his transcendent 
teaching, his majestic deeds, his sacrificial death, his glorious resur- 
rection, his radiant ascension, his position at the right hand of the 
^lajesty on high, and his abiding presence in human life and his- 



122 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tory. A truer, more pregnant sentence the great Christlieb never 
"uttered than when he wrote that Christ is Christianity, as Plato 
was never Platonism and Mohammed never Mohammedanism and 
Buddha never Buddhism. We often speak of Christianity's un- 
paralleled power, and yet let us remember that, since the stream 
cannot rise higher than its source, Jesus the Christ is the living 
personal force because of whom all ages and races have been agitated 
and convulsed. Eecall the splendid words of Dr. Wace in his nota- 
ble controversy with Huxley, "The strength of the Christian Church 
is not in its creed, but in its Christ.'^ In spite of all its faults, the 
Church has conveyed to the minds of millions of men a living image 
of Christ. They see him there; they hear his voice; they listen 
and they believe in him. It is not so much that the}^ accept certain 
doctrines taught by him as that they accept him himself, their Lord 
and their God. It is with this living personal force that agnos- 
ticism has to deal ; and as long as the gospels present him to human 
hearts, so long will the Christian faith and the Christian Church, 
in their main characteristics, be vital and permanent forces in the 
Christian world. Here, believe me, is and ever shall be Christian- 
ity's glory, the Son of God and the Son of Mary^ — the Christ who 
on earth matched every sermon with a service, every doctrine with 
a doing, every creed with a character; the Christ who in heaven is 
enthroned amid native scenes and clothed with Divine authority, 
recognized more and more in the Church and world as the King of 
kings and the Lord of lords. 

And this exalted Christ, let us never forget, is the once crucified 
Christ. More in the Church of the future, if possible, than in the 
Church of the past will the cross be emphasized and glorified. The 
richest theme of the Church will ever be God in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself — not through a strange mysterious incarna- 
tion, though Christ was "God manifest in the flesh"; nor through 
the illumination of matchless doctrine, though of Christ it was 
said, "Never man spake like this man" ; nor through the glory of 
spotless character, though Christ "knew no sin, neither was guile 
found in his mouth" ; nor through the majesty of miraculous deeds, 
though Christ cured the sick and healed the blind and raised the 
dead ; but God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself through 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 123 

the blood of a transcendent, an all-sufficient, an unrepeatable atone- 
ment for human redemption — Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 
Much of the preaching in our day, e^en in evangelical pulpits, is 
struck to a lower key. It is Christ, to be sure, but not Christ 
crucified. It deals much with the life of Christ, in its tender 
human s}Tnpathies — ^the Christ whose face was sculptured benevo- 
lence, whose hand was friendship's sj-mbol, whose eye was liquid 
sympathy for all human burdens and woes; much with the works 
of Christ as the pattern and inspiration of all helpful doing; much 
with the words of Christ a.s a Divine philosophy, with heights to 
which no human imagination has ascended and depths which no 
human plummet lias fathomed and breadths which no human mind 
has compassed, ^7ow, these are well enough in their place, but they 
are not central and fundamental. They are incidental rather than 
essential, ephemeral rather than eternal, facts rather than truths, 
mere chippings, as it were, from the grand corner-stone on which 
is reared the everlasting and everglorious superstructure of Divine 
glory and human redemption. The Cross is the central truth of 
the gospel. Jesus Christ and him crucified is the primary, funda- 
mental, energizing truth of the Christian system — not Christ the 
perfect man, nor Christ the elevating teacher, nor Christ the self- 
sacrificing philanthropist, but Christ "mighty to save" through the 
unlimited power of his redeeming blood. As another has said, 
the heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption 
i^ the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Chris- 
tianit\-'s centre is the Cross. From this scene of shame and glory, 
anguish and victory, all the radii of the gospel go out in lines of 
living light. Eedemption is the grand principle into which all our 
religion — doctrinal, experimental and practical — ^may be general- 
ized. There is no truth in revelation that does not point to the 
atoning Son of God; no right desire of human nature that does 
not m.eet in him ; no duty in life of which he is not either the perfect 
fulfillment or the most cogent incentive. In the Cross, says Spur- 
geon truly, man may behold the concentration of eternal thought, 
the focus of infinite purpose, the centre of Divine and illimitable 
wisdom; for Christ crucified is the corner-stone of all Christian 
creed and practice, worship and discipline, union and extension. 



124 THE AMERICAJsT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Before the bowed bead and bleeding heart of impotent humanity 
steps forth Christianity with its crucified Christ and declares, as it 
points to the world's Eedeemer, "Christ hath redeemed ns from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" ; "he tasted death 
for every man"; "his own self bore our sins in his own body on the 
tree/' And then that magnificent declaration that seems to sum 
up all: "If the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer, 
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how 
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal 
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences 
from dead works to serve the living God." 

Here in this Christ, and in him alone, find we a personal revela- 
tion and a satisfactory demonstration of an atoning sacrifice for sin. 
To use Krummacher's beautiful figure, the Cross is the condition 
which carries off the destroying flash from our race by Christ at- 
tracting it to himself. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all m'en to mie" — that is the Divine decree, the eternal fiat. 
"Lifted up"; not through physical force: Mohammed and the 
Picardian hermit may trust to the sword ; not through merely intel- 
lectual supremacy: Plato and Socrates excelled in that; not simply 
through moral teaching: Seneca is conspicuous as a moralist; not 
through any, nor through all, of these would the Son of Man lift 
the universe to the throne of God, but through the reconciliation 
of man to God by the all-efficacious blood of an everlasting 
Covenant. 

Believe me, friends, there is no perad venture here. The Cross 
is no experiment. As sure as Jesus was crucified, and as sure as 
the oath of God is true, so true is there redemption on Calvary. 
The wisdom which conceived the plan of the satisfaction of the 
Divine government by the sacrifice of the Son of God himself in 
the place of the sinner is unerring wisdom. The authority which 
commanded the execution and promised redemption is as unques- 
tioned as the right of the Almighty to the throne of the universe. 
The power which is arranged for the accomplishment of the pur- 
pose is the power able to bring under contribution to this end the 
whole machinery of nature and grace, even the pow^r of the Lord 
Gods Omnipotent. And the love which inspired the wisdom to con- 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 125 

ceive and tlie authority to command and the power to execute is 
ihe unchangeable nature of Jehovah himself. 

" O Glorious Cross ! Faith trust the day to see 
When hope shall turn all eyes, love draw all hearts to thee!" 

The message of the pulpit has been and shall more than ever 
in the future be characteristically Christo-centric ; Christ the God, 
Christ the man, Christ the God-man, the living Christ, the dying 
Christ, the ascended Christ, the reigning Christ. Believe me, 
brothers, of all the themes that inspire human hearts and fire human 
Ijps, this alone is sufficient to magnify the name of God, exalt the 
Divine Son, convict and convert human souls, and transform a 
"Paradise Lost," with all its blight and woe, into a "Paradise Ee- 
gained," with all its celestial songs and eternal triumphs; and, 
prompted by this conviction, nay, held by it as yon planet is held 
in its orbit by the law of gravit}^, each ambassador of Christ should, 
with his face turned to his Master, lift the prayer, 

" In offering Thy salvation free, 
Let all absorbing thought of Thee 
My mind and soul engross; 
And when all hearts are moved and stirred 
Beneath the influence of Thj word 
Hide me behind Thy Cross ! " 

Christ! Christ! Not ethics, nor moral philosophy, nor astron- 
omy, nor geology, nor history, nor political economy, but Christ on 
Calvary's summit, the centre of humanity's highest hopes, noblest 
aspiration, and divinest life. As Fra Angelico, the saintly Italian 
painter, would never go to his palette and brush to do work on the 
figure of Jesus without first partaking of the communion, so let us, 
brethren in the ministry, precede our pulpit duty by a prayerful 
visit to Calvary and its Cross. Oh ! some day the words of Bowring 
will have a new meaning and be sung with a new rapture: 

" In the Cross of Christ I glory. 

Towering o'er the wrecks of time, 
All the light of isacred story, 

Gathers round its head sublime." 

IV. In the fourth place, what will be the attitude of the Church 
of the Future to the Problem Sociological ? 



126 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

A most practical and important question this, also, peculiarly 
suited to our day and generation. Ours is pre-eminently a day of 
practical benevolence and utilitarian tendencies. We are unlike all 
of our predecessors. The Roman craved the display of wondrous 
power and imperial sway. The Greek delighted to lose himself in 
the abstruse labyrinths of metaphysics. The Hebrew made it part 
of his religion to bow down before hoary rites and flaming robes and 
bloody sacrifices. We live in a stern age of facts, an age in which 
society is, as never in the past, emphasizing sociology, social 
psj'-chology, social ethics, social politics ; an age, as Stuckenberg has 
well said, which teaches that religion m^eans the salvatio^i of the 
soul, but, also, as it meant with Jesus, the feeding of the hungrj'-, 
the clothing of the naked, the healing of the sick, the visiting of 
the prisoner, and relief, comfort and help for the whole being; 
in short, an age for the most comiprehensive and perfect application 
of Christian truth to all social classes and all social relations. 
^Ture and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this, to 
.visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction and to keep un- 
spotted from the world." 

" Its comin' yet, for a' that, 
That man to man, the world o'er, 
Shall brothers be for a' that." 

-The Church at last is beginning to apprehend the truth of Kelm-'s 
significant sentence, ^'^The religion of Jesus meant the Fathership 
of God for man, the Sonship of man for God, and the infinite 
spiritual good of the kingdom of heaven is Fatherhood and Son- 
ship." And with the deeper life and broader outlook which the 
coming century will bring to the children of God there will be felt 
with a new power, and taught with a new emphasis, the sublime 
truth that there is nothing secular which religion cannot both touch 
and glorify; that God never meant his saints to have one gospel for 
Sunday and another for Monday, one religion for the Church and 
another for the world, one conscience for Caesar and another for 
Jehovah; that goodness is not a little island here and there in the 
great ocean of life, but rather the all-permeating salt that fills 
every part of the bright, broad sea. Surely if a pagan, standing 
centuries ago in the dim twilight of natural religion, could nobly 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 127 

say, "I am a man, and nothing tliat concerns man can be foreign 
tv> me," much more earnestly and intelligently should the same 
sentiment fill the soul of every follower of the Christ, who lovingly 
taught, along with the exalted fatheriiood of God, the sympathetic 
brotherhood of man. And the Church of the future will offer more 
prayers, not only for the saving of human souls, but also for the 
amelioration of the material condition of all mankind, lifting on 
high the earnest cry of Eliot: 

" When wilt Thou save the people, 

O God of mercy, when? 
The people, Lord, the people, 

Not thrones and crowns, but men ! 
Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they; 
Let them not pass like weeds away. 
Their heritage a sunless day. 

God save the people." 

And if all this sociological work be noble and true, it must have 
a Christian basis. There is a world of meaning in the short sen- 
tence of the great Tholuck, "Every service must have God for its 
Father, if it have earih for its mother." It is not insignificant that 
the Crusader's sword had a cross-bar hilt. "Its blade was keener 
in battle because he could kneel before it in devotion." Let the 
Church of the future see to it that it base and prosecute all of its 
sociological work in consecrated sympathy with the life and teaching 
of him whose mission it was to preach the gospel to the poor, to 
bind up the broken-hearted, to give deliverance to the captive, and 
recovery to the faint, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 
Ko such altruism in the world is there like that taught and ex- 
emplified by the religion which pathetically and sjTnpathetically 
exhorts, "Bear ye one another's burden and so fulfill the law of 
Christ," and "Look not every man on his own things, but every 
man also on the things of others." 

"0 brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; 
Where pity dwells the peace of God is there; 
To worship rightly is to love each other. 
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." 

Y. In the fifth place, what will be the attitude of the Church of 
the Future in relation to Christian Unity ? 



128 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT, 

To this interesting question it may be answered tiiat there never 
was among God's people as to-day such a unity of spirit in the 
bonds of peace. Ours is an age of religions toleration, of spiritual 
liberty, a glad period of minimizing differences and emphasizing 
agreements in the Church of Christ. But do not dream even of all 
denominations becoming organically one. Men differ too widely 
in birth and education and providential callings for this ever to be 
accomplished. The universal law of God is grace, as in nature is 
this : unity in diversity. The stars, though having fellowship with 
one another through fellowship with the central luminary, differ 
greatly in size and color and distance from' the sun. Each Chris- 
tian must have his own Christian convictions, his own denomina- 
tional afFmities. There should be in the Church no boneless, nerve- 
less liberality. As Henry Van Dyke in his "-Church ; Her Ministry 
and Sacraments," says, "Men cannot, ought not to renounce their 
personal convictions. If we should dissolve all Christian denomi- 
nations to-day it would create not union, but disunion. If we 
should renounce all creeds, the world would not have peace, but 
confusion." And yet, with absolute fidelity to the great funda- 
mental truths of the gospel, the Church shall more and more realize 
the prayer of the Master "that they all may be one as thou art, 
Father, in me and I in thee"; not one in organic union, for that is 
not the union of Father and Son, but one in heart and purpose, 
in will and work — a union spiritual and indissoluble. And the 
ctmtral point of union must be in Jesus Christ, the author and 
finisher of our common hope and faith. "All things are yours, 
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas ; all are yours, and ye are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's." Differ speculatively Christian men 
and women may, but differ essentially they never can, so long as they 
agree upon absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ as Sovereign and 
Saviour. O'ur controversial swords snap when we bend together 
before the pierced One. As a Baptist I delight to recognize the 
worth) and work of noble men of other denominations than my own, 
and to sing with the Methodist Wesley, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," 
and with the Episcopal Toplady, "Eock of Ages, Cleft for Me," and 
with the Congregationalist Palmer, "^[y Faith Looks Up to Thee," 
and with the Presb}'terian Bonar, "Glory Be to God the Father," 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 129 

and with the Reformer Luther, ^'A Mighty Fortress is Our God/^ 
and with the Catholic Xewman, "Lead, Kindly Light/' and with 
the L^nitarian Bowring, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory/' and with 
the Quaker Barton, "He Dwells in Cloudless Light and Shines/' 
and with the Baptist Fawcett, "Blessed Be the Tie that Binds Our 
Hearts"; and then rejoice to hear th-e Yoices of all these joining 
in the glad hynm of common faith and inspiration : 

" Like a mighty army 

Moves the Church of God, 
Brothers, we are treading 

WTiere the saints have trod; 
We are not divided, 

All one body we. 
One in hope and doc-trine. 

One in Charity." 

VI. In the sixth place, what will be the attitude of the Church of 
the Future in relation to World- wid-e Evangelization ? 

The spirit of missions, which is the spirit of Christ, is recognized 
and actualized to-day as perhaps never before. The history of the 
sacred, self-sacrificing anointing nineteen hundred years ago re- 
peats itself from time to time. Mary of Bethany is a representative 
of the thousands to-day whom, with more light than this saintly 
woman, and clearer visions of the Christ, and a broader survey of 
God's kingdom on earth, pour out the best gifts of hand and heart 
and mind and life upon him vv'ho rejoices to be known as the 
Saviour of the nations. As twenty centuries ago, so also to-day, 
there may be witnessed both in our land and in the regions of dark- 
ness beyond the sea the costly box of spikenard, the ardent impulse 
of affection, the splendid deed of devotion, the sweet aroma of 
sacrifice, all crowned with the loving appreciation of Jesus. One 
hundred years ago the Church drew out of its hiding-place where 
for centuries it had laid, in almost absolute inutility, the glorious 
commission of its Lord; and since that time, how the Christian 
Church has rejoiced in the consecrated labors, on mission fields, of 
a heroic host — men like Braynard and Buchanan, Carey and 
Clough, Egede and Eliot, Heber and Hall, Judson and Jewett, 
Lowrie and Livingston, Martyn and Moffat, Xewell and Xott, 



130 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Richards and Rice, Vinton and Vanderkempt, Xavier and Zinzen- 
dorf ! The worldly great are honored in granite and brass and in 
the hearts of their countrymen, but the monumient to these, higher 
than the limits of human glory, has a base as wide as the field of 
Messiah's reign on earth, while its apex shall not be finished until 
the last proclamation of the gospel shall be heard among men. 
Worldly magnates like Alexander and ISTapoleon will be forgotten 
and literary potentates like Plato and Seneca pass into oblivion, but 
the noble deeds of these God-inspired heroes will live forever, their 
influence co-extensive with the story of Christ's great love. Verily, 
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached through- 
out the whole world, this, also, that they have done shall be 
spoken of as a memorial of them. 



For this world has heroes whom her crowds would not applaud, 

Not by clash and clamor is the Gospel message told; 

Not by the blast of trumpet does the Father's Will unfold j 

But by patient toil and thought, 

Faith and prayer through practice wrought, 

These their fruits will be^r 

Here and everywhere." 

And yet, splendid as have been in the past the sacrifices and 
results in interest of worlds wid'e evangelization, may we not confi- 
dently expect to witness in this direction richer achievements for 
the Christ in the coming centun^? One of the most inspiring 
signs of this is found in the absence to-day of criticisms heard in 
other days respecting the Divine plan of missions — ^now by the 
historian Froude, now by the romancist Dickens, now by the liter a- 
tcur Carlyle, now by the Governor-General Sir Leipel Grifiin, now 
by the physician Oscar Lenz, now by the Hindoo lecturer Mozoom- 
dar, and now by even the Christian minister Canon Taylor; men 
either with no eye to see the noble act of sacrifice for Christ, or 
with no heart to appreciate the height and depth and length and 
breadth of its immortal meaning and its eternal worth. Few in 
this present time stand up and out in boldness and proclaim, as 
once they dared to proclaim, "Christianity is a miserable failure 
except in Europe and America ; the ministers of the gospel are pam- 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 131 

peredi sons of fortune, who live in elegant houses and feed on the 
fat of the land while their converts grovel in the dust at their feet ; 
no real impressions are made upon the superstitions and vices of 
barbarianism ; all the converts are 'rice Christians/ proving allegi- 
ance to the new faith for what they can get out of it; even where 
a nation or tribe becomes nominally Christianized it is but a surface 
finish, a thin veneer of Christianity which kills off the unfortunate 
people that are coated with it by inducing them to adopt civilized 
ways to which their climate and life are alike unsuited" — declara- 
tions which have drawn from. Professor Drummond the satirical re- 
mark, "Missionary reports are said to be valueless; they are not 
half so valueless as anti-missionary reports/' Over against the 
critics of the past appear now some of the choicest spirits of this 
century with words of highest commendation on the worth and 
work of missions. Hear Max Miiller saying, "Whatever is known 
of the dialects of savage nations is chiefly, if not entirely, due to 
Christian missions"; and Professor Whitney, the distinguished 
Orientalist, "There would hardly be occasion for the American 
Oriental Society at all but for missionary labor"; and G-ladstone, 
"Every mission station is, in a sense, a scientific observatory, pre- 
senting facts which are of unspeakable value to the world""; and 
Daniel B. Sickels, United States Consul to Siam, "In my opinion 
Christian missions have accomplished more for American govern- 
ment in extending its influence in the East than all the consuls in 
the service"; and Darwin, "The success of the Terra del Fuego 
mission is most wonderful. It shames me to think that I once 
prophesied respecting its utter failure. It is a grand success" ; and 
our own beloved Cordon, "Look at India's fifty thousand Telugus 
taken from the heart of heathenism, with faces to-day shining like 
polished coins from the mint of the Holy Spirit." Surely the 
world has changed front during the century just closed on the 
question of missions, 

. And in the Church we witness to-day a missionary enthusiasm 
not visible since the days of the apostles ; men and women weighing 
aright the far-reaching words of the majestic Christ, "If I be lifted 
up from earth I will draw all men to me" ; men and women thrilled 
deep down in their being with the parting command of the ascending 



132 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULriT. 

Saviour, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature"; men and women realizing what Paul's great soul felt 
when, stirred with the heaven-born conviction of his supreme obliga- 
tion to the brotherhood of the race, he exclaimed, "I am debtor to 
both Greek and Barbarian, both to bond and to free"; men and 
women who have entered, at least to some degree, into the emotions 
of Carey when, after m'aking his rudte map of the world, he pointed 
out place after place to a friend, saying, as great, hot tears rolled 
down his cheeks, "That is pagan, that is pagan" ; men and women 
believing with all their hearts that God means his persuasive and 
powerful gospel for all times and for all souls — in the early days of 
Christianity for "idolatrous Greek and luxurious Corinthian and 
w^orld-conquering Roman, for the barbarian of Lystra and of Malta 
and for the high official of Ethiopia, for the magician of Ephesus 
and the prison-keeper in Philippi and the purple-seller of Thyatira," 
and in these last days, for the shivering Greenlander and the glow- 
ing West Indian and the Eed Man of America and the Sandwich 
Islander and the servile Karen and the fierce Malay and sensual 
Hindoo and the prejudiced Mohammedan and the ebon child of 
Africa and the boasting denizen of Japan and China, this glorious 
gospel of the ever-blessed God, for all mankind, irrespective of 
heredity and environment, of race and religion, of culture and 
civilization. 

And under the inspiration of this faith what achievements on the 
foreign field stand out before us to-day ! Ninety languages in which 
the Bible has been fully, and 230 partly, translated ; 280 missionary 
organizations at work; 13,000 missionaries abroad; 60,000 native 
preachers and teachers; 7,000 Bible schools in foreign lands, ^\dth 
more than 1,000,000 scholars; 6,000,000 children in village schools 
and 7,000,000 in higher schools. How glorious the vision ! Well 
does President Seeley exclaim, "N'ever before has the gospel wrought 
such great and speedy change; there is nothing comparable with it 
in the history of the world." The isles of the sea have 61,000 con- 
verts, with 23,000 professed adherents. Lladagascar and the Sand- 
wich Island's are to-diay almost evangelized. Japan, with 70,000 
native Christians, ha? adopted the Christian Sabbath and the Chris- 
tian calendar. India is breaking the fetters of superstition, 300,000 



THE CHURCH OF TPIE FUTUEE. 133 

of her people rejoicing in the Christ. Korea has six missionary 
societies operating within her borders. Cliina, vrith 80.000 native 
Christians, will slowly but surely yield heart and life to the only 
true God. In Africa missionary feet press the paths once trod by 
Livingstone, as 1,000 stations give promise that even Ethiopia is 
about to stretch forth her hand to God. Brethren, rejoice mth a 
joy unspeakable and full of glory as you hear the words of Dr. 
Dennis in his fine work, ^'Foreign Missions After a Centur}"" : 
'•'One hundred years ago and, so far as any general recognition of 
the need was conceived or any apparent consciousness of the call, 
there was a silence like that of the grave resting as a pall over all 
the heathen world — a silence which, though eloquent as death, ut- 
terly failed to touch the sym|>athy or move the conscience of Chris- 
tians. Today the whole world is ringing with voices like the sound 
OL many waters calling the Church to an aggressive campaign of 
v.'orld-wide activity and eventually of universal conquest and peace- 
ful oceupation." 

Blessed ]ye God, the Christ-ordained work of world-wide evan- 
gelization is no failure. It is no failure in the eyes of the Almighty, 
not one of whose elect has ever been lost or who will ever be 
unsaved ; who, not limited by time, sees his purpose accomplished as 
soon as conceived; who, knowing the end from the beginning, has 
authorized the declaration, ''The kingdoms of this world are become 
the kingdom of the Lord and his Christ.'*' The world's evangeliza- 
tion is no failure, because the world was created for this very pur- 
pose, as the wonderful words of Paul reveal when he declares that 
he must ''preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
Christ and make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery 
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who 
created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto 
principalities and powers and in heavenly places might be made 
known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the 
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord"; no 
failure, bec-ause Divine provision has been ordained for its accom- 
plishment: no failure, because that is the eternally decreed test as 
to whether this planet shall be ruled- by the lord of death and dis- 
cord or by the Lord of life and peace; no failure, because he who 



134 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

predicts and promises it cannot and will not deny himself; no 
failure, because without it the universe cannot be restored to har- 
mon}^, the reign of God will never be triumphant, the mediational 
glory of Jesus will never be realized, the Cross of Christ be proved 
a figment, the gospel a fiction, and truth a myth. men and 
women, if this great, glorious missionary work of human redemp- 
tion be a failure, then there is nothing left for man but black 
despair, as the consummation and concentration of all wisdom, 
"the universal whole," rushes back to original chaos and under 
the ruins become buried eternally all spirit and God himself ! 

But why take any dark view or indulge in any sad speculation as 
we enter into the glory of the tv/entieth century of our glad Chris- 
tian era? The golden age of our Divine religion is not in the yes- 
terday of the past nor in the to-day of the present, but in the to- 
morrow of the future ; and if we but look this hour with the eye of 
faith we shall behold all things in connection with the blessed cause 
of missions — the Word of God, the history of the past, the conditions 
01 the present, the prospects of the future — ^hastening on to that 
"one far-off Divine event to which the whole creation moves," the 
conquest of the world by the King of Glory and the Prince of Peace. 

" For lo ! the days are speeding on, 

By prophet bards foretold, 
When, with the ever-rolling years. 

Comes back the age of gold; 
When peace shall over all the earth 

Her final splendors fling 
And all the world send back the song 



FREDERIC FOYE BRIGGS was born in Kansas City, Mo., June 11, 
1S67. Both his parents were of Xew England stock, tracing their ancestry 
back to the days of the Mayflower. When only four years of age his father 
died in the city of Denver, Col., and after several years his mother wa.s 
married to the Rev. Frank M. Ellis, D. D., then pastor of the Michigan- 
Avenue Baptist Church, of Chicago, 111. In 1876 Mr. Briggs accompanied 
his stepfather to Denver, Col., where for four years he attended a private 
school. In 1880 the family removed to Boston, Mass., Dr. Ellis becoming 
the pastor at Tremont Temple. A residence of four years was spent in Bos- 
ton, during which time Mr. Briggs attended the historic Boston Latin 
School. Before his preparation for college was completed. Dr. Ellis became 
pastor of the Eutaw Place Baptist Church, of Baltimore, Md., and Mr. 
Briggs, after three years of further preparation, entered the Johns Hopkins 
University in 1888, from which he was graduated in June, 1891, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. The summer of 1891 was spent in study, and 
in the fall of that year he entered the Crozer Theological Seminaiy at 
Upland, Pa., from AAhich he was graduated in June, 1894. In July, imme- 
diately following his ordination, Mr. Briggs was asked to supply the pulpit 
of the Beth Eden Baptist Church, of Philadelphia, made vacant by the resig- 
nation of Rev. John T. Beckley, D. D. In November of that year he was 
called to the pastorate of the church. Owing, however, to negotiations then 
in progress looking to the consolidation of the Beth Eden Baptist Church 
with the First Baptist Church, Mr. Briggs accepted the position only as 
stated supply. The plans for consolidation proving successful, Mr. Briggs, 
after ministering to the Beth Eden congregation for eleven months, was 
chosen as the temporar}^ pastor of the consolidated church. This church i5 
one of the oldest Baptist churches in America, in 1898 celebrating its two 
hundredth anniversary, the results of which have been published in a volume 
entitled "The Bicentennial Celebration of the Founding of the First Baptist 
Church of the City of Philadelphia," edited by William Williams Keen, 
M. D., LL.D, After an interval of eleven months, the Rev. Kerr Boyce 
Tupper, D. D., of Denver, Col., became the permanent pastor of the church 
and Mr. Briggs became assistant pastor. In November, 1896, the Second 
Baptist Church of Wilmington, Del., extended to Mr. Briggs a call to be- 
come its pastor. The call was accepted, and in November, 1900, he entered 
upon his fifth year as pastor. 
(1.35) 




^Ei F^iiE^n© F. mmm, i. k 



THE HUMANITY OF CHEIST. 137 

X 

THE HUMANITY OF CHEIST 



By Eey. Frederic Foye Briggs^ B. A., 

Delaware 

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." — John 1 : 14. 

IN that brief poem entitled "The Children's Honr/'^ Longfellow 
has immortalized one of the beautiful customs of his life. This 
little insight into the life and character of the great poet will be 
remembered long after some of his poems have been forgotten. As 
the day was drawing to its close ^^tween the dark and the day- 
light/' the great man emerged' from the toil of the day^, laid aside 
the work upon which his busy brain had been laboring^ and gave 
himself up completely to the children. He came down from his 
lofty eminence and entered into their little lives. With patience 
and s}Tiapathy he listened to the recital of their petty troubles, and 
with equal freedom they confided to him their joys and sorrows. It 
i.^ a beautiful picture of greatness, setting aside its communion with 
lofty ideas and entering into the lives of th'C lowly. 

And is not this Just what Jesus Christ, the Son of G-od, did when 
he came from heaven to earth? The Incarnation was humanity's 
hour. The hour when Christ laid aside the glory which he had with 
the Father before the world was; the hour in which he exchanged 
the perfect communion of heaven for life among sinful men; the 
hour when he emptied himself, "made himself of no reputation and 
took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the Likeness 
of men" — when as a little babe he took upon himself our nature that 
he might enter into our lives and become the Saviour of men. 

At Easter-time we are prone to think much of Christ's divinity, 
for in the bursting of the tomib we see the power of a God. We 



138 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Stand in awe before the empty sepulchre and in its very emptiness 
we contemplate the victory of our Divine Lord. But at Christmas- 
time we think more of Christ's humanity, for in the simple story of 
hie birth we behold one who partakes of our nature, enters into our 
lives and makes us co-heirs with himself to the heavenly glory. This 
brings mo to the thenue of the morning — 

THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST 

Lot me interpret to 3^ou, if I may, the meaning of Christ's 
humanity: 

I. The fact that Christ was human enables him to perfectly sym- 
pathize with us in our temptations and trials. 

Far away in the distant Eocky Mountains, shut in by lofty peaks, 
lies th^e beautiful sheet of water known as "Echo Lake." The water 
ia clear and cold, for it is fed by the melting snows. In the quiet 
evening you push out from the shore and when near the middle of 
the lake you rest on. your oars. When all is still you lift your voice 
and cry out. After a brief pause there comes back to you from this 
side and that the echo. You recogTiize the tone and inflection as 
your own. Shut in by the lofty mountains, your voice is sent back 
to you in the oft-repeated echo, so that out of the mysterious silencf^ 
of nature about you comes a voice in perfect sympathy with your 
own. 

Is it not just so with the soul that cries out to God in its sorrow 
and distress? Out of the circumstances of hardship and bitterness 
with which life is surroundied, out of the trials and temptations wdth 
which the pathway is strewn, the soul, looking up to heaven, cries 
out for love and s3TmLpathy. Nor does it cry in vain, for soon, from 
him who took upon himself our humanity, comes the answer, "In 
that I have suffered, being tempted, I am able to succor them that 
are tempted." And the weary, burdened soul feels that there is one 
heart that knows its sorrow and beats in S}Tnpathy with it, even the 
heart of Jesus Christ, who entered into humanity. 

There are two lessons which we may learn from this. The first 
has reference to our attitude toward Christ. Because of Chnst's 
sympathy with humanity we have boldness to come unto him, not 
only for mercy, hut for grace to help in time of need. There are 



THE HUMANITY OF CHPvIST. 13^9 

two classes of persons who are not properly qualified to show 
mercy — those who have never been tempted, and those who have 
fallen much under the power of temptation. The former class 
would be apt to be too severe and would resort at once to the harshest 
measures. They would expel the offender from society without a 
liearing.. The latter class would be too lenient. Because they them- 
selves have fallen much they would be apt to regard it lightly and 
excuse it as a necessity. But in Jesus Christ we have one who can 
meet all our needs, for he was tempted in all points like as we are, 
hence he can sympathize with us ; yet, though tempted, he was with- 
out sin, hence he is qualified to show mercy. 

When we read how Christ had compassion on the multitudes ; how 
tenderly he dealt with erring Peter and doubting Thomas ; how he 
comforted his distressed disciples and mingled his tears with those 
of Mary at the grave of Lazarus ; how quickly he responded to the 
woman's touch of faith — when we read of these manifestations of 
kindness, we feel that he will manifest the same love and sympathy 
toward us, and we draw near to the throne of grace with boldness, 
rejoicing that, although Christ was Divine, he was also human. 

The second lesson has reference to our qualification for showing 
s}inpathy to others. It was because Christ was tempted that he 
could sympathize with those who were tempted, so if we would know 
how to sympathize in the highest sense we rmist know what it is to 
he tempted and tried. Peter's bitter experience of being "sifted as 
wheat" enabled him the better to strengthen his brethren. Just as 
it is necessary for the block of marble taken from the quarry to be 
f')rmed and fashioned by the blows of the sculptor's chisel before it 
cnn fill its place in the building, so in our natures there are rough 
places that need to be softened down, sharp comers that need to be 
brokrn off, and the trials of life are the strokes of God's chisel by 
\vhich this is being done. Then, and then only, will we be able to 
STTnpathize with others to feel for them and with them in their 
sorrows, to give consolation and lighten the burdens which weigh 
them down. Thus our very temptations render us mere capable of 
entering into the lives of our fellow-men. Thus from the fact of 
Clirist's humanity comes his sympathy for us and our s}Tnpathy for 
others. To sympathize perfectly is to be Christ-like. 



140 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

II. TJie fact that Christ was human enables him to Icnow the 
strength of our aspirations and desires for higher things. 

To my mind no sight is more pathetic than to look back across the 
centuries to the condition of the Greek and Eoman world just before 
the birth of Christ. How pathetic to hear the wail of despair which 
comes from the poets^ the philosophers and the moralists of ancient 
Greece and Eome after exhausting ever}^hing in their search for 
happiness without finding it! Their despair only shows the in- 
tensity of their desire. The restlessness of the Greek was shown by 
the great number of gods he worshipped, from each one of whom 
he could derive but one virtue: wisdom from one, eloquence from 
another, purity from Diana, and success from Fortuna. The de- 
spair of the Roman is seen in the confession of Seneca, "We must 
bay of ourselves that we are evil, have been evil and — unhappily I 
must add — shall be also in the future." They had the consciousness 
of an awful disease without the knowledge of a remedy. Is it not 
with almost prophetic foresight that Seneca again wrote, "No one 
can help himself; some one must stretch out a hand to him to lift 
him up"? Thus the ancient world had aspirations which it could 
not understand and longings which it could not satisfy. Som.e one 
must interpret to men these yearnings of their souls. 

What a thrill of joy fills the heart of man, when, conscious of 
these aspirations, he sees in the human Christ one who knows their 
strength and can fully satisfy them ! The spiritual development of 
our Lord's disciples furnishes abundant proof that in him they had 
found one who understood their inmost thoughts and satisfied their 
loftiest aspirations. Their daily intercourse with him tended to 
strengthen these noble desires, for they felt that they were in the 
jiresence of one wlio knew their nature, because he had been made a 
partaker of it. Is not the same true in the spiritual development 
of every soul? Its development is advanced as it comes in contact 
with the great throbbing heart of Christ and realizes that because 
he came in the flesh and took upon himself our humanity he knows 
our hearts, our desires, our longings for higher things. Thus our 
Lord's humanity revealed to him humanity's aspirations. 

One of these longings is for heauty of character. It is well known 
that the ancient Greek regarded that which was beautiful as worthy 



THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 141 

of worship. The inevitable consequence was that religion degen- 
erated into mere art. Beauty of form and outline were ever3rthing. 
The sculptor who carved a beautiful statue was exalted almost 
among the gods. The poet who gave the nation a poem perfect in 
conception and execution was a national hero. The musician who 
produced rich and melodious strains was considered half divine. 
But how seldom do we find the tendency to emphasize beauty of 
character! What a different conception came into the world with 
Jesus Christ ! The beauty of character which men had neglected 
he emphasized, and because he thus put it at the head of all other 
rttainments we desire it to-day. He exemplified it in himself, and 
because we see it in him we desire it for ourselves. The more we 
contemplate the beautiful life of the Christ the more we are con- 
scious of an overmastering impulse to be like him. 

Another of these yearnings of the human soul is for immortality. 
This longing is well-nigh universal. Wherever man is found, and 
wherever death severs earth's dearest ties, there will be found this 
longing for immortality. The untutored savage may not know of a 
life beyond this, but he longs for one. This yearning of the soul 
finds its complete answer in Jesus Christ, for it is Christ "who hath 
abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel. The darkness has been taken from the tomb 
since Christ entered its portals and came forth again. He who gave 
the longing for immortality has satisfied it fully. Thus because 
Christ was human he knows humanity^s aspirations ; because he was 
iilso divine he completely satisfi.es them. 

III. The fact that Christ wa^s human enabled him to interpret to 
men the true meaning of life. 

In the rapid increase of scientific knowledge we come upon many 
strange anomalies. That which was used by one generation to prove 
a certain theory is used by a succeeding generation not only to dis- 
prove that theory, but to establish quite the contrary one. The fact 
has not changed, but its interpretation has. It formerly was sup- 
posed to teach one thing, but now that it has been more carefully 
interpreted, we find it teaches quite another. 

For example, the same fossil remains which taught the geologist 
C'i a century and a half ago that the earth was literally 6,000 years 



142 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

old teaches the geologist of to-d&j that the earth^s age is to be 
counted by hundreds of thousands of years. The same experiments 
which proved conclusively to men of science a century ago that 
matter was destructible, now prove just as conclusively to men of 
science that matter is indestructible. Its form may undergo change, 
but its substance is not destroyed. Have the facts changed ? No ; 
.^or facts never change. It is the interpretation which has changed. 

In the same way Jesus Christ, when he came in the flesh saw in 
the common affairs of daily life a new meaning. He took the same 
customs which the Jews had been observing for centuries and put 
upon them a new interpretation. He breathed into life a meaning 
it had never had before. For example, Christ gave a new meaning 
to sorrow. Formerly the Jew had conceived the idea that sorrow 
was an especial mark of G-od's displeasure; that it came upon men 
?s a result of their wickedness and sin. Joy and prosperity were 
Ihe evidences of God^s approval, and nothing could have convinced 
the Jew that the contrary of this might also be true. But when 
Jesus came he breathed into sorrow a new meaning. He surprised 
his disciples by saying, "Blessed are they that mourn.^^ Instead of 
their being marks of Divine displeasure, sorrow and suifering were 
-hown to be evidences of God's love. "Whom the Lord loveth be 
chasteneth" could never have been Avritten except by one who had 
caught Christ's interpretation of sorrow. It required a Paul, who 
had learned of Christ the true meaning of life's trials, to say, "Our 
r.ght affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Christ's interpretation of 
sorrow has glorified it. It becomes the chisel in God''s hands by 
which he fashions and beautifies the life. 

Again, thinh of the new meaning Christ gave to humility. The 
word ^Tiumilitas," although it is used by the ancient heathen moral- 
ists, is used in the sense of "baseness of mind." The ancient world 
had no conception of it in the sense in which it is used in the New 
Testament. The term was applied to slaves and captives, to mean 
low and degraded men. It was a term of reproach, and was used 
in contempt. No Greek or Eoman ever looked upon it in any other 
sense than as a vice. 

Wa^v Christ came he breathed into the word a new meaning. He 



THE HU3IAXITY OF CHEIST. 143 

gave it dignity and valne. Tlie srigma attached to it was taken 
ciwav and it became one of the foremost Christian yirtues. He even 
went so far as to make the spirit of hnmility essential to entering 
Oie kingdom of God. He again emphasized it by making it the 
jneans by which preferment is attained — **He that hnmbleth himself 
shall he exalted.*' Christ banished pride and pnt hnmility on the 
^brone. That which others had despised he exalted. When he 
lived among men he exemplified it himself. When he retnmed to 
heaven he left it as a legacy to his disciples to the end of time. 
Christ'- emphasis should be onr emphasis. Since he practised it. so 
-honld we. 

Thns in the fact of Christ's humanity we see the new interpreta- 
tion which he gave of life; the knowledge which he has of onr 
noblest aspirations and longings, as well as the sympathy by which 
he enters into onr lives. By his humanity as well as by his Di- 
vinity he lifts ns np and inspires ns to Christ-like living. He en- 
tered into the lives of the lowly that the lowly might enter into 
his life. 



144 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XI 

WHY BE BAPTIZED? 



By Eev. Junius William Millard, M. A., Th. M., 
Maryland 

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you." — Mat. 28 : 18, 19. 

THESE words are taken from our Saviour's last commission, 
which contains more meaning in small compass than can be 
found in any saying of similar length in all the world. To his fol- 
lowers, Jesus gave four separate commands — Go, Preach, Baptize, 
Teach. It is concerning the third of these that I wish to speak 
to-day, ^'^Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost.^^ It is a pity that this essential command 
of Jesus Christ's, emhodpng a practical duty which all should 
calmly consider, is so inextricably joined to a controversy which 
irtirs up strife. It is our desire to-day to take it out of the contro- 
versial and put it in the realm of the practical. It should be pos- 
sible to speak of religious matters without bitterness, and I trust 
that those here who know me are assured that I am incapable of 
ill-will toward those who do not believe as I do. I preach this 
to-day as a part of the gospel of my Lord and Master, doing so 
because in the words just read he said, "Teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I have commanded you." In the days of the 
apostles teaching as to baptism formed a part of every sermon, as is 
seen from the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost, "Repent and 
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins." (Acts 2: 38.) In the case of Cornelius, also, 
Peter said (Acts 10: 47), "Can any man forbid water, that these 
j^hould not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well 




UB 



m§, lu. m. 



JUNIUS WILLIAM MILLARD was born in Sampson county, N. C, 
January 23, 1870; was born again in 1884 and baptized into the member- 
ship of the Goldisboro (N. C.) Church. He is the youngest of seven chil- 
dren — all members of Baptist churches, as were also their father and mother 
and their ancestors as far back as they can trace. He graduated from 
Wake Forest College in June, 1892, with the degree of Master of Arts. He 
then went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and graduated in 
1895 with the degree of Master of Theology (Th. M.). He was ordained in 
December, 1891, and while attending the Seminary at Louisville Avas pastor 
of two country churches, one at Fishersville, Ky; the other being 
Buffalo Lick, in Shelby county, Ky. His first charge after leaving Louisville 
in June, 1895, was at the church in Henderson, N. C, where he remained 
until June, 1896, when he entered upon his work as pastor of the Eutaw 
Place Baptist Church, Baltimore, Md., one of the most prominent pulpits in 
the South. The church was built by the great Bichard Fuller, D. D., that 
prince of preachers, and has had such other pastors as Dr. Franklin Howard 
Kerfoot and Dr. Frank M. Ellis. Mr. Millard succeeded the latter, who re- 
signed to accept the pastorate of the Washington- Avenue Church, Brooklyn, 
N. Y. Eutaw Place Church leads the entire Southern Baptist Convention 
on both Home and Foreign Missions, giving over $-±,000 to these two objects. 
On November 4, 1896, Mr. Millard married Miss Mary Weakley, of Shelby 
county, Ky. Mr. Millard uses no manuscript in the pulpit, has a rich, melo- 
dious voice, many of the arts of an orator, and a modest and charming per- 
sonality that is doing so much to make his ministry such a success. 
(146) 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 147 

as we" ? We have no exact record of the words of the sermon 
preached by Philip to the eunuch, but we know that when he 
'•preached unto him Jesus'' he must have explained the initial rite 
bv which one made profession of faith in Jesus, for the eunuch said 
(Acts 8 : 36), "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be bap- 
tized''? 

I wish to speak, first, of the obligation to be baptized ; second, of 
the nature of baptism; third, of the subjects of baptism.. 

The obligation of the ordinance rests not upon the nature of the 
oidinance, but upon the positive command of Jesus Christ. 

There are two kinds of commands, or laws — positive and moral. 
The moral rests upon the nature of the thing commanded. The 
reason for it we can easily see, and the duty it enjoins would he 
eternally binding were there no law at all upon the subject. Of 
such is the command, "Thou shalt not kill." Positive law rests 
upon the authority of the one who gives it. The reason for it we can- 
not necessarily see, but it is to be obeyed simply because it is com- 
manded. Of such was the command, "Thou shalt not eat of it; 
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 
(G-en. 2: 17.) A moral command can be obeyed in any way that 
is consistent with its spirit, but a positive law must be implicitly 
obeyed to the very letter. 

In the c-ase of a moral law, it is necessary that we know the reasons 
involved, so that we may obey in essentials, and obey intelligently, 
but in the case of a positive precept, no reasons need be given, as its 
binding force arises from the authority of the law-giver. 

Hence, a positive command is the best test of obedience, and of 
love. Ignorant of the reasons behind it, and not caring for them, 
one obeys simply from allegiance and love, as in the case of the 
child who does not wait to ask why, but does as the father says. It 
is so with the soldier, 

" Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die." 

If one knew the reasons for a positive command, one would be 
obeying one's logical instincts, not the one who gave the order, or 
issued the command. 



148 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Not only so\, but a positive command inclnd'es only tlie thing speci- 
fied, and forbids everything else. Moses was commanded by God to 
do a certain specified thing, "Speak ye unto the rock before their 
eyes." Bnt we read, "Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod 
he smote the rock twice." The resnlt was all right, for "the water 
came out abnndantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts 
also," but God said, "Ye shall not bring this congregation into the 
land which I have given them." The command was not to tonch 
the ark, bnt Uzzah pnt forth his hand, thinking the ark was in 
danger of falling (2 Sam. 6: 6), in order to hold it. His motive 
was good, bnt he forgot that God could take care of his own, and 
that the thing for him to remember was the positive command of 
God not to touch it. 

All this explains the punishment Avhich always followed the dis- 
o])edience of a plain, positive command of God's, as is seen, for 
in&tance, in the case of Adam. The eating of the fruit of the tree 
in the midst of the garden was not so grave a thing in itself, but 
when God said not to eat it, the eating became a heinous act of 
flagrant disobedience against one who had the right to give the law, 
without having to state his reasons. 

Now, the command of Jesus to be baptized does not partake of 
the nature of a moral law, for if we had no command to be baptized, 
not to do so would be no sin, for there is nothing in the nature of 
the case to make it of itself binding. The reason for it we cannot 
see in the ordinance itself, but it rests wholly upon the revealed 
will of the blessed Saviour. Hence, it is not a matter of in- 
ddiference whether we obey or not. It would be if we were 
sure, first, that we knew all the reasons God had in mind 
when he gave the ordinance, and in the next place, that none of 
those reasons were valid in our particular case. But as we are 
sure of neither, it is arrogating too much to oneself to say that 
it is a matter of no consequence how one is baptized. It is a 
positive command given us by the blessed Ecdeemcr, and as such 
should be exactly obeyed simply because he enjoined it, and it 
is not necessary that he give us his reasons. 

But what if, in addition to the command, and as if to leave 
us without excuse, God has caused us to know something of the 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 149 

reasons that caused him to give us this ordinance in just the 
way that he has ? And what if behind it there should be a mag- 
nificent lesson, inherent in its very form, a lesson which it is 
essential that the world have constantly before it? And what 
if that lesson, or teaching, were destroyed when the ordinance is 
tampered with, and not obeyed in its original way, as Jesus 
enjoined? Without saying anything about the form of the or- 
dinance, we wish to call attention to the fact that there is a sym- 
bolism, beautiful to behold, in its Yeij form, a symbolism that 
ever keeps pictorially before the world the representation of the 
atoning work of redeeming love, as Jesus suffered death, and 
was buried in the grave for the sins of the world, but was raised 
from the dead by the power of God. This, and even the added 
teaching that believers are, in him, dead and buried to the old 
life of sin, and are, in him, raised to a new life of faith and 
obedience, all this, I say, is taught in this most beautiful of 
Christian symbols, as we learn from Eom. 6: 2--*: '"How shall 
we thaf are dead to sin live an}' longer therein? Know je not, 
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were bap- 
tized into his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by bap- 
tism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in new- 
ness of life." 

If, then, there is an inherent meaning in the very form of the 
ordinance as first given us by the Master, and if the right ob- 
servance of it, upon the authority of Paul in the sixth chapter 
of Komans, acts as the outward, symbolic teaching of the great 
inward change that has taken place within us. consequent upon 
our faith in Jesus as the Saviour of the soul, then it is well that 
we ask as to the nature of baptism itself, with special reference 
to the form of its administration. In doing this we are not 
placing more emphasis upon the mere matter of form than Paul 
did in the passage referred to in Romans, for there he based upon 
that a great teaching as to practical Christian living. Further- 
more, we are not going further than we ought, for the obliga- 
tion of baptism rests not upon the nature of the case, but sim- 
ply and solely upon the revealed will of the Christ. It is a pcsi- 



150 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tive command that should be implicitly obeyed. A positive com- 
mand shuts out all save that which is commanded. Hence, there 
are not many ways of observing baptism, but one. That one way 
is the way in which the Saviour himself was baptized, and which 
he himself commanded.. Can that way be known ? 

As this is not a moral law, but a positive command, it is not 
binding if not plain, for a law that is hopelessly obscure has no 
force. Hence, it is of the one who gave it to also make it plain, 
so that we may know exactly what it means. 

The best way to find out whether G-od has made it plain is to 
study the word itself. "Baptize" is the Anglicized form of the 
Greek word "baptizo," a foreign word brought bodily into our 
language. The best way to find out what it means is not to 
imagine what it ought to mean, but to inquire what those who 
used it in daily speech meant by it. We see every day in the 
newspaper dispatches from the seat of the war in South Africa 
such words as "kop," "laager," "commandeering." "trekking," 
and "kraal." The only way in which we may know what they 
mean is to find out what the people in South Africa mean when 
they use them. Hence, we find occasionally notices in the papers 
explaining the meaning of such terms among the Boers. So 
with baptizo. It is a Greek word. What did the Greeks mean 
when they used it ? 

There are two lexicons, one for classical and the other for 
New Testament Greek, that stand out from all others as the 
standards of authority in their respective fields. The one is the 
seventh edition of Liddell & Scott's Lexicon, for classical Greek, 
and that authority gives the meaning of the word baptizo as 
follows: "To dip in or under water. Passively, to be drenched. 
Middle, to dip oneself." The other lexicon is that by J. H. 
Thayer, for New Testament Greek, and he gives the meaning as 
follows: "I. To dip repeatedly; to immerse; submerge. 2. To 
cleanse by dipping, or submerging; to wash; to make clean with 
water. 3. To overwhelm. II. In the New Testament it is used 
particularly of the rite of sacred ablution, first instituted by John 
tlie Baptist, afterwards by Christ's command received by Chris- 
tians and adjusted to the contents and nature of their religion, 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 1 C 1 

viz., an immersion in water, performed as a sign of the removal 
of sin, and administered to those who, impelled hy a desire for 
salvation, sought admission to the benefits of the Messiah's king- 
dom." With these agree the nnited scholarship of the world — 
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Pedobaptist — all, for all admit 
that the original meaning, and the only meaning, of the word 
baptizo was, and is, to dip, to submerge in water. Brethren, it 
is almost puerile to thra=h over this old straw, and I feel like 
apologizing for doing sr, but I feel that this subject should be 
systematically presented, and so praying your patience, may I 
here quote the exact vrords of a few men who are competent to 
bear witness to the meaning of the word we have under discus- 
sion? I will not cite a single Baptist, but all will be eminent 
men who do not themselves baptize by immersion, but whose 
testimony is all the greater and stronger because it is forced from 
them by the facts.* 

The Jewish Piabbi, Dr. Isaac Wise, of Cincinnati, says : ^"If Mr. 
Heaton, instead of quibbling on words and consulting diction- 
aries, would have inquired after facts, and would have looked 
up the matter in the Mishna and other Jewish authors, he would 
have discovered that the Jews had no idea of sprinkling — they 
knew the bath and. submersion. Consequently, John the Baptist 
submerged his converts in the Jordan. * * * ^^ know ex- 
actly what John did at the Jordan, and all the dictionaries can- 
not change the fact." 

A few years ago Dr. MacLaren, of England, in his exposition 
of the Sunday-school lessons in the Sunday-School Times, said 
that Jesus was immersed. At once a number of gentlemen wrote 
a protest to Dr. Trumbull, editor of the Times. In an editorial 
August 6, 1889, he replied : "Most Christian scholars of ever}' de- 
nomination are agreed in finding the primitive meaning of the 
word baptize to be to dip or to immerse. The sweep of scholai^hip, 
in and out of the Baptist Church, is in favor of immersion as the 
principle meaning of the word baptize. A verv* large portion of 
the scholars of the world agree with Dr. MacLaren that immer- 
sion was the mode of John's baptism. 



*Ma]iy of the following quotatioiiB are taken from Rev. J. T. Christian's 
book, "Immersion." 



152 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Bishop A. Cleveland Cox^ says : "The word means to dip." 

Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, says: "We have only to go back six 
or eight hundred years, and immersion was the only mode, except 
in the case of a few baptized on their beds when death was near. 
* * * Immersion was not only universal six or eight hun- 
dred years ago, but it was primitive and apostolic. * * * jf 
any one practice of the early Church is clearly established, it is 
immersion." 

Dr. Talmage, in his book, "From the Manger to the Throne," 
tells how he, a Presbyterian preacher, immersed a candidate in the 
river Jordan. Dr. Talmage says: "One of our Arab attendants 
had a garment not unlike a baptismal robe. With that garment 
girded around me, I led the candidate under the trees on the 
banks of the Jordan. * * * After prayer, I read of Christ's 
baptism in the Jordan, and the commission: ^Go teach all na- 
tions, baptizing them,' etc. The people on the banks then joined 
in singing that soul-stirring song, ^On Jordan's Stormy Banks I 
Stand.' With the candidate's hand in mine, we waded deep into 
the Jordan, and I then declared: ^In this historic river, where the 
Israelites crossed and ^aaman plunged seven times for the cure 
of his leprosy, and Christ was baptized, and which has been used 
in all ages as a symbol of the di^^iding line between heaven and 
earth, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost.' As the candidate went down under the water and 
then arose, I felt a solemnity that no other scene could have in- 
spired." 

It would be easy to quote more at length, and from many other 
writers, but this is enough to show that the drift of scholarship 
is all in one direction. There was a day when this was an open 
question, but that day is past, and the whole matter is now set- 
tled. A writer in the ^ew Testament meant an immersion of 
the person in water when he used the word baptizo. How plain 
that would seem to one who might for the first time read the 
words of the New Testament, which describe the baptism of Je^us, 
the eunuch, and others. 

"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be 
baptized of him. But John forbad him, sapng, I have need to 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 153 

be baptized of thee^ and comest thou to me? And Jesus an- 
swering said unto him, Suffer it to be so no^^; for thus it be- 
cometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of 
the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he 
saw the Spirit of God descending upon him." (Matt. 3 : 13-16.) 

'^And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain 
water: and the eunuch said. See here is water: what doth hinder 
me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all 
thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe 
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the 
chariot to stand stilly and they went down both into the water, 
both Philip and the eunuch: and he baptized him. And when 
they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord 
caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more." 

The Greek language is to-day spoken in Greece, and the word 
baptize is in common use. Dr. TV. D. Powell, while in Athens, 
asked a professor in the University of Athens what the word 
baptize meant in Latin, and he replied "Submergere." When 
he returned to the hotel he asked the head waiter, who was a 
Frenchman, to ask the porter what it meant, and he replied that 
it meant to put under water and to take out of the water. To 
the Greeks it seems strange that there should be any question 
about its meaning, as it has with them but that one well-defined 
meaning. Dean Stanley, in his history of the Eastern Church, 
says: "There can be no question that the original form of bap- 
tism — the very meaning of the word — was complete immersion 
in the deep, baptismal waters; and that, for at least four cen- 
turies, any other form was either unknown, or regarded in the 
case of dangerous illness as an exceptional, almiost . a monstrous 
case. To this form the Eastern Church still rigidly adheres, and 
the most illustrious and venerable portion of it, that of the By- 
zantine Empire, absolutely repudiates and ignores any other mode 
of administration as essentially invalid." (The Eastern Church 
to which he refers includes the countries where Greek is to-day 
spoken. These peoples have never done oth-erwise than baptize 
by immersion.) 



154 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

The original meaning of the word being so clear, and it being 
also possible to show so plainly that the early Chnrch baptized 
by immersion, and those people who speak Greek never having 
done otherwise than dip, it is next in order to inquire where and 
when the change was made. Who is responsible for so many peo- 
ple disobeying (many ignorantly) this plain, positive command 
of onr Lord's? Cardinal Gibbons, the head of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church in this countr}^, says: ^Tor several centuries after the 
establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually conferred by 
immersion; but since the twelfth century the practice of baptizing 
by affusion has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as this manner 
is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion.'' 

I quote again from Dean Stanley: "For the first thirteen cen- 
turies, the almost universal practice of baptism was that of which 
we read in the New Testament, and which is the very meaning 
of the word baptize — that those who were baptized were plunged, 
submerged, immersed into the water. That practice is still, as 
we have seen, continued in Eastern Churches. In the West- 
em Church it still lingers among Eoman Catholics in the soli- 
tary instance of the Cathedral of Milan; amongst Protestants 
in the numerous sects of the Baptists. It lasted long into the 
Middle Ages. Even the Icelanders, who at first shrank from the 
waters of their freezing lakes, were reconciled when they found 
that they could use the warm waters of the geysers. And the 
cold climate of Eussia has not been found an obstacle to its con- 
tiauance throughout that vast empire. Even in the Church of 
England it is still observed in theory — Edward VI. and Eliza- 
beth were both immersed. But since the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century the practice has become exceedingly rare, with few 
exceptions just mentioned. The whole of the Western Churches 
have now substituted for the ancient bath the ceremony of let- 
ting fall a few drops of water on the face." 

Thus it will be seen that where the Pope of Rome has not 
held sway the change was never made and sprinkling never ob- 
served. We are safe in saying that Rome is responsible for the 
change. There is a marked difference in the way that Catholics 
and Protestants try to defend sprinkling. Protestants try to find 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 155 

authority for it in the Bible; Catholics boldly avow that their 
Church changed it. And yet, even to-day, about one-half the 
Christian world practices immersion, and all the world accepts 
it, for an immersed believer is received anywhere, just as a gold 
coin is current wherever men live and trade. 

Now, may I add a word as to the subjects for baptism? Bap- 
tists oppose the baptism of infants, but in two respects they agree 
with all Christian bodies the world over. We believe first in the 
duty of parents to dedicate their children to God, and in the 
next place all of us believe in the salvation of children who die 
in infancy. Infant baptism originated in the belief that unbap- 
tized children were damned, but those who now hold to infant 
baptism would, I am sure, repudiate any such doctrine as that. 

But, while thus agreeing with all Christian bodies thus far, 
we are opposed to the baptism of infants, and in part for the fol- 
lowing reasons : 

1. We believe it is entirely unscriptural, no single passage of 
the New Testament having ever been shown to countenance any 
such practice. On the contrary, all the teaehing of God's Word 
is that first there must be faith in Jesus as Saviour, and then 
the open confession of him in baptism. Its s}Tnbolism is de~ 
stroyed unless there have first been the death to the old life of sin, 
through repentance, and the resurrection to the new, through 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

2. We believe that infant baptism puts the whole question of 
personal religion upon a false basis, making one a child of God 
by heredit}^, when the Bible expressly says that we are "born not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God." (John 1:13.) 

3. It destroys individuality in religion as well as personal free- 
dom. A child has to be coerced into being baptized, and so God 
is surrounded by those who are unwilling to serve* him. He de- 
sires the loving service of those who come to him of their own 
free will. 

4. As a consequence, it lets down the bars and lets the world 
in. The world is to-day filled with outbreaking sinners who were 
^Hoaptized'' in their infancy. When they were "baptized'' it either 



156 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

meaat something or it did not. If it did not, it did no good, 
and, being meaningless, was worthless. If it did, then there 
were brought into the Church of Jesus Christ those who did not 
love him, and who had no part in him, never having repented 
of sin, and never having confessed his name. It does no good, 
but does much harm. The Guardian, a paper published in the 
interest of the Church of England, says "six-sevenths of those 
baptized (in infancy) are not comm.unicantS;^ and considerably 
more tlian half are never so much as confirmed." It is best to 
leave this whole matter where the Bible does — first, the preaching, 
then faith, then baptism, to be followed by indoctrinating. 

God seems to have thrown about baptism all the restraint he 
possibly could, as if he foreknew that men would distort the 
meaning of this ordinance. In the first place, the writers used 
plain, unmistakable language to describe what was meant. There 
were words in general use which meant washing, sprinkling, and 
pouring, but the Holy Spirit had the writers of the New Tes- 
tament to employ a plain word which meant but one thing, and 
which all the efforts of a half-dozen centuries have failed to 
make mean anything other than it seems upon the face to mean. 

Then, as if foreseeing that men would explain it all away, 
Jesus himself was baptized as an example for us. I can see 
nowhere any reason for his baptism other than that. He had 
no sins to repent of, but was baptized, the Sinless One, for an 
example to us, as if to show that he was always willing to lead 
the way for those who were to follow him, and that he was un- 
willing to tell us to do that which he was not himself willing 
first to experience. 

. Then, that it all might be unmistaken, the purpose of baptism 
is made plain before us in the sixth chapter of Eomans, showing 
that it is a symbolic picture of the greatest transaction in history, 
the death of Jesus of ISTazareth, and that it exemplifies in indi- 
vidual lives the two central truths in revealed Christianity — 
death to sin, and the resurrection to the new life of faith and 
love. Nay, more, it shows our essential unity with Christ in 
his death, burial, and resurrection. 

If we did not know who gave the command, there would be some 



WHY BE BAPTIZED ? 157 

excuse for disobepng^ but we know that tlie connnaiid comes from 
the living God^ the only expressed command that the Christian 
faces, and that, too, at the very beginning of his life of trust. 
It is as if Jesus were to say: "Do this, and afterwards you are 
free; this is the only time I will place a command before you." 
It is not a question of essentials and non-essentials, but of love 
and of obedience to that Lord who makes laiown to us his will in 
unmistakable terms. He is still living, the Great Head of the 
Church, int-erested in the affairs of his people. How his heart 
must be hurt by the constant acts of disobedience — not willful 
perhaps' — but he sought to make it all so plain, and men have 
disregarded ! 

Hear his final words : "If ye love me keep my commandments.'^ 



158 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XI] 

THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM * 



By Samuel Harrison Greene, D. D., LL. D., 

District of Columbia 

"The fear of the Lord is the beginninj^ of wisdom." — Prov. 9 : 10. 

THE struggle of life has never been more real than it is to-day, 
or the need] of intelligence, honesty, and faith greater. The 
social, economic, and political conditions of the present are mak- 
ing it possible for the wise and the brave to render a service never 
surpassed in the annals of history. The bugle-call for great life 
is sounding, and he must be deaf or dull who does not feel his 
own soul thrill in response. To fit our young men and women for 
eifective service in such times as these is the most sacred and im- 
portant of undertakings. Aristotle being asked in what the edu- 
cated differed from the uneducated, said: "As the living differ 
from the dead." In the highest and holiest sense, education stands 
for the development of the whole man. Its natural product should 
be a man of fine physical development, with intellect keen and 
strong, and a heart large and clean. An attempt at anything 
less than this is education only in a fragmentary^ and dangerous 
sense. The balance in culture must be maintained if the best 
results are reached. I come to you, therefore, to-day, in the light 
of certain drifts in the educational world, to lay emphasis, as 
I may be able, on Christian education, the spirit in which our 
fathers, with prayer and sacrifice, planted their schools. I shall 
feel myself honored if, in this distinguished presence, I may re- 



*Tlie Commencement Sermon preached at Richmond College, Virginia, 
June, 1900. 




SMiEL ^. giElME, i. i., LL i 



SAMUEL HARRISON GREENE, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, 
Washington, D. C, was born in Enosburg, Franklin county, Vt., December 
25, 1845; a descendant of Capt. John Parker, of Lexington, Mass. His 
father, Columbus Greene, was a well-known and highly-respected clergyman 
of Verrnont. During his boyhood he attended the common schools of his 
native State, the seminaries at Fairfax and Brandon, and spent a year in 
Norwich University. At the age of twenty-one he was elected Superintend- 
ent of Public Schools in Montgomery, Vt., where he then resided. During 
the same year he united with the Baptist Church at Montgomery Center, 
Vt., and a year later was licensed to preach. In 1868 he abandoned mercan- 
tile pursuits, in which he had been engaged, and entered upon preparatory 
work for the ministry at Hamilton, New York, graduating from college in 
1873 and from Hamilton Theological Seminary in 1875. In June, 1875, he 
was ordained as pastor of the Baptist Church at Cazenovia, New York. In 
1879, after a prosperous pastorate in Cazenovia, he resigned to accept the 
unanimous call of the Calvary Baptist Church at Washington, D. C. Here 
he is just completing the twenty-second year of service. During this time 
Cah^ary Church has become one of the largest, most thoroughly organized, 
aggressive, and benevolent churches of the city, having now a membership 
of nearly seventeen hundred. The pastor has been honored with the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity by Norwich University, the University of Rochester, 
and Colgate University, and LL.D. from Columbian University. He has 
been one of the trustees of Columbian University since 1889, during a por- 
tion of which time he has been chairman of the board, vice-president, and 
acting president in 1894-'95 and 1900-'01. He was one of the speakers at 
the Baptist Autumnal Conference in Philadelphia in 1875, the National 
Baptist Anniversaries in Cincinnati in 1891, the Baptist Congress in Nash- 
ville in 1897, and has lectured and preached before the students of Crozer 
and Hamilton Theological Seminaries, Columbian University, and Richmond 
College at the request of the faculties. He is vice-president of the New 
York Baptist Education Society, a member of the National Georgraphic So- 
ciety, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. 
(160) 



THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. 161 

call and magnify that conviction out of which, most of our great 
institutions of education were bom. When Peter Cooper laid the 
comer-stone of Cooper Institute, he placed within it this record 
of his motive: "The great object that I desire to accomplish in 
the erection of this institution is to open the avenues of scientific 
knowledge to the youth of our city and countr}^ and so unfold 
the volume of nature that the 3'oung may see the beauties of crea- 
tion, enjoy its blessings, and learn to love the Author from whom 
cometh every good and perfect gift." Mr. Cooper here expressed 
probably the motive which has led to the planting of most of our 
great educational enterprises. The fathers were neither narrow 
nor foolish, though they may have builded better than they knew. 
They believed' that the hope of the world lay along the lines of 
Christian education, and history has vindicated their belief. In 
their name, and for the sake of their children and their chil- 
dren's children, I would seek to honor that past, so fragrant with 
pathos, heroism, and sacrifice, as I bring you the words of the 
text : "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'^ 

The thought of the text I take to be this : a reverent and abid- 
ing sense of the existence and presence of God, and of our ac- 
countableness to him, is the natural and necessary beginning of 
true scholarship. Some truths are fundamental; to deny or ig- 
nore them is to render successful investigation impossible. The 
great central fact of the universe is G-od, and it is only in the 
light of that fact that other truths become clear and their con- 
nection apparent. Behind the bare facts set forth in botany, 
geology, chemistry, and physiolog}^ there is a personality, a giver 
of life and law. Instinctively do we feel, with Greorge MacDonald : 

" A voice is in the wind I do not know ; 
A meaning on the face of the high hills, 
Whose utterance I cannot comprehend. 
A something is behind them; that is God." 

Among the beautiful English lakes, I lingered for a time at 
Grassmere, and beside the Eotha and under the shadow of the 
church where he worshipped I read again the life of Wordsworth, 
and, as I thus seemed to come into the realm of his life, his poems 
gathered for me a beauty and significance I had not known be- 



162 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

fore. So he who opens his text-book in the light of God's con- 
scious presence has found the first condition of true scholarship. 
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" in that it fur- 
nished the right starting place, and this is essential to success. 

But, again, the "fear of the Lord" furnishes the right spirit 
for the wise pursuit of knowledge in that it assures humility, 
obedience, and love — a trinity of essentials. Great scholarship 
is always humble, since none are so conscious of their ignorance 
as tho^ who have attained the most, and none know their own 
failures so much as they who have stood in the presence of the 
Great Teacher. It was one of earth's great men who said, when 
complimented on his attainments : "I am like a child with a hand- 
ful of pebbles on the seashore, and beyond are countless miles of 
them." Reverence leads on to obedience, and obedience to the 
truths known unlocks the door to many a one beyond. It was 
Cicero who said: "He who obeys with modesty appears worthy 
some day or other of being allowed to command." We do well 
to guard continually against disloyalty to truth already learned, 
since it chills ever}^ high aspiration of the soul for knowledge. 
That kind of obedience prompted by the fear of the Lord is es- 
sential to the growth of wisdom. "To him who wears the cross 
the first great law is — To obey." 

"The fear of the Lord^' has in it nothing abject, no taint of 
serfdom, but the wholesome, growing affection of a well-reared 
child. To such the discipline of home is a mighty stimulus to re- 
spect and love. Love once regnant leads the world in every one 
of its tremendous struggles toward larger life. Truth in the ab- 
stract may attract but the few; but let it become incarnate, and 
it is a power irresistible. He who said: "I am the truth" was 
the greatest of teachers, and love for him has inspired more schol- 
arly endeavor than all other considerations combined. In the 
very love it generates and cultivates does Christianity furnish the 
highest and most abiding stimulus in the search for truth. Christ 
is truth, and he alone makes men free. Cowper sang well when 
he said : 

"He is the free Tnan whom the truth makes free, 
And all are slaves besides." 



THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. 163 

It grows apparent, therefore, that in the humility it invokes, 
the obedience it demands, and the love it inspires, "The fear of 
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom/^ 

I come to remind 3-011 that "the fear of the Lord" naturally 
furnishes, not only the right starting place and the right spirit, 
but the right purpose and end of all scholarly endeavor. It was 
the greatest of all teachers who said: "Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the 
second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 
It is impossible for selfishness to furnish the inspiration for great 
scholarship; it must come from the heights above — not the depths 
beneath. It must be for the glory of God and the good of hu- 
manity. On this high field scholarship will be crowned, if it is 
crowned at all. Here purpose, plan, and fellow^ship are found, 
and life, freed from a thousand petty annoyances, resting in its 
own consciousness of love manward and godward, smngs to its 
work with a delicious sense of privilege and power. 'No man can 
hoard the gifts of God and prosper in any large sense; for his own 
sake, he must "seek not to be ministered unto, but to minister." 
Self-giving is the law of real greatness. "Give, and it shall be 
given unto jow.'^' And so I bring you the kingly word of com- 
mand, privilege, opportunity — "Freely give." 

Young gentlemen of the graduating class, I congratulate you 
on the completion of jowv long course of study and the honors al- 
ready won, and none can vdsh you a larger or more prosperous 
future than I. On the threshold of tbat future let me, in all 
honesty, urge upon you the considerations of this hour. These 
are wonderful years in which we live. Never has the world wit- 
nessed such combinations of brain and money, such stupendous 
strides in material things, such leadership in its nerve and method. 
Great emphasis is being placed on the human and the material. 
I come, amid the achievement, the noise, the heat of the times, 
and ask you not to lose sight of God, who still sits on the circle of 
the heavens ruling over all, and to remind you that he is the one 
great fact in your life; in his hands are the destinies of nations 
and of men. . , , ; , 



164 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

I come to remind j^ou of the life everlasting and the influence 
of that other world on this ; for it is, after all, in the light of these 
two facts that the present life finds its interpretation and inspi- 
ration, and neither the inspiration nor interpretation can come to 
the man who has permitted the point of contact in himself to be 
destroyed. These are da}^ of athletics, and I believe in them; 
days of social culture, and I welcome it; da^-s of great intel- 
lectual development, and I glory in it; but I would remind you 
that there are faculties within you needing care and culture vastly 
more than muscle and brain. In home-building one is fortunate 
who has physical strength' to provide for its support and defense, 
social grace to adorn it, intellectual culture to assure the scope 
of its intelligence and power, and yet you know that these, desir- 
able a« they are, cannot make a home in the best and holiest 
sense. There are finer contributions than these necessary] — ^a lan- 
guage not learned in the schools, a wealth not counted in figures, 
a culture not indicated by degrees, as soul answers to soul and 
lives mingle like drops of water in a home sanctified and glorified 
by love. Such is that higher fellowship into which I would fain 
lead you to-day. Whether to you this has existence, attraction, 
power depends on the conditions of lieart and mind within you. 
To one the i^azarene — he who is "the truth" — is but "a root out 
of dry ground," while to another he is the "rose of Sharon." As 
a final sen^ice of love, I would lead you to the feet of the Great 
Teacher, and, as you reverently bow there, whisper yet onee again 
in your ear the message of the hour : "The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom." 



THOMAS CARSKADOX JOHNSON is a son of \Yilliam Johnson, who 
oame from Hampshire countr, Va., (now Mineral county, W. Va.,) and set- 
tled at Long Reach, Tyler county, Va. (now W. Va.), in 1813. His mother 
was Elizabeth Dye, his father's second wife, of Monroe county, Ohio, whose 
parents came from Virginia. He was next to the youngest of nineteen chil- 
dren, and was bom at Long Reach, W. Va., September 18, 1848. His early 
years were spent on the farm. During the winter months he attended a 
subscription school at his father's home. In 1866, at the age of eighteen 
years, he entered the Academy at Marietta College, Ohio, and graduated 
from that institution in June, 1872, having dropped out one year during 
the course. During that time he taught the district school in his old home 
neighborhood for three successive terms. His mother died in 1869, and his 
father in 1871. He was baptized April 19, 1868, into the fellowship of the 
Marietta Baptist Church by Rev. J. D. Griebel, now of California. In his 
senior year at college he decided to enter the ministry, and was licensed to 
preach by the Long Reach Baptist Church, West Virginia, in 1872. He took 
a three years' course at Crozer Theological Seminary, from which he was 
graduated in 1875, Soon after graduation he took charge of the Willow 
Island Baptist Chureh, Pleasants county, W. Va., and of the Valley Baptist 
Church across the river in Ohio. He was ordained at the former church 
October 10, 1875, Dr. Henry C Weston, president of Crozer Theological 
Seminary, preaching the sermon. In 1876 he accepted the call of the Valley 
Church for all of his time. On December 1, 1877, he became pastor of the 
Charleston Baptist Church, Charleston, W. Va., where he is now lo- 
cated. About 1895 his Alma Mater, Marietta College, honored him with 
the degree of Doctor of Divinit3\ He has been the associate editor of the 
Baptist Banner, the denominational organ of West Virginia, since its be- 
ginning. He was moderator of the Kanawha Valley Baptist Association for 
a number of years. He was president of the Baptist Young People's Union 
of West Virginia for three years, and is now a member of the Board of Man- 
agers of the Baptist Young People's Union of America. In October, 1899, 
he was chosen president of the Baptist General Association of his State. He 
has been a strong Prohibitionist since 1884, and in 1896 was the candidate 
for Governor on that ticket. When he took charge of the Charleston Bap- 
tist Church it had a membership of sixty-live; it now has over three hun- 
dred. 

(1651 




immihn ©. JioiiM, 1. 1. 



JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 1G7 

XIII 
JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH 



By Thomas Carskadon Johnson, D. D., 
West Virginia 

"To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that 
I should bear witness unto the truth." — John 18 : 37. 

THIS is pre-eminently an age of investigation. In every direc- 
tion experts in learning, with the most perfect appliances, 
are in diligent search after the truth. Many are exploring all 
countries and all the ages of the past for historical truth. Many 
are searching the heavens and the earth as never before for 
scientific truth. Many are critically scanning the spiritual realms, 
both human and divine, in quest of religious and theological truth. 
Indeed, it is assumed by not a few that this is the only age that 
has ever been competent to discover the truth, and that what has 
been received as such in the past is to be discarded as antiquated 
or erroneous and to be replaced by the newer and very different 
results of the really intelligent and accurately scientific researches 
of the present day. 

It is certainly true that the nineteenth century has witnessed 
a greater advance in the acquisition of knowledge than all the 
centuries of the past put together. But the world has by no 
means been destitute of truth in all these ages. Many of the most 
useful arts and industries are nearly, if not quite, as old as the 
race. 

Both in ancient and in modern times, even in the physical 
realm, many truths have come to man more in the nature of a 
revelation than of a discover}-; so that it is no marvel that nine- 
teen hundred years ago one came from' heaven to seal and to reveal 



168 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

truth, especially in the spiritual and religious realms. For Jesus 
of x^azareth said in the language of our text: "To this end was 
I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
bear witness unto the truth." 

However, there are those in these latter days claiming even to 
be the truest friends of the N'azarene who deny that he had any 
other than human qualifications as a witness to the truth; main- 
taining that even his testim'ony cannot stand where the "higher 
criticism" reaches conclusions that differ from it. It is evident 
that the war which has been raging against the inerrancy of the 
Bible is to be consummated in a terrible onslaught against its 
great citadel, the inerrancy of Jesus. For, though some defenders 
of the Bible are endeavoring to relieve their Lord of the responsi- 
bility of any real testimony concerning the Book, it is neverthe- 
less tiTie that while his testimony stands the Bible will stand as 
the inerrant, infallible Word of God. Let us then "consider the 
Apostle and High Priest of our profession" as a witness to the 
truth. 

I. His Qualifications as a Witness. 

There is no sane man who is not qualified to bear witness to 
some truth, and many are qualified by intelligence, experience, and 
observation to testify to a great deal of truth. But to what ex- 
tent was Jesus qualified to be a witness ? 

a. In the first place, his pre-existence and his abode in heaven 
gave him qualifications vastly superior to those of any mere hu- 
man being. He was bom into the world, but he did not originate 
in the world. He came from heaven, where he abode in glory with 
the Father before the world was. To those who deny this fact 
we have nothing to say now. This discourse is for those who be- 
lieve in the pre-existence and heavenly origin of Jesus. 

Now we instinctively believe that one who is, or has been, in 
heaven knows the truth to a vastly larger degree than any one 
here. While we feel that earth knows little of heaven, we feel that 
heaven knows all of itself and all of earth too. This feeling is 
the basis of spiritualism which is simply an unlawful effort to ob- 
tain witnesses from heaven. But "no man hath ascended up to 



JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 169 

heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man 
which is in heaven." That is, no one has gone to heaven to come 
back as a witness. Jesns himself is the only one w^ho has come 
from heaven for that purpose. And because of this fact he is com- 
petent to tell "US of things both earthly and heavenly. His testi- 
mony must be of great value concerning spiritual things and con- 
cerning God's plans and doings both in heaven and on earth. 

h. But in the second place, his divine nature makes him an ab- 
solutely competent witness in the whole universe of truth. The 
Divine Werd, who was in the beginning with God, and was God, 
and who became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, was of neces- 
sity omniscient. He must know all the truths of science and 
philosophy, for the worlds were made by him. He m.ust be fa- 
miliar with all historical truth, for true history is but the unfold- 
ing of his own plans and the record of his own government of the 
world. He must have perfect knowledge of all spiritual truth, 
fer he is the source and embodiment of it all. "In him are hid 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Surely if God came 
into the world to be made manifest in the flesh he m.ust have been 
in possession of all the truth when he left his throne on high. 

c. But a third proposition is necessary to complete the argu- 
ment for the absolute qualifications of Jesus as a witness to the 
truth and to all truth. It is that he retained his heavenly and 
divine knowledge during his abode in the flesh upon the earth. 
It is claimed by some who profess belief in his divinity that while 
in the flesh that divinity was veiled, and that he possessed only hu- 
man knowledge. That he partook of the general ignorance of his 
times, and that he came into possession of truth only as he was 
taught it, or discovered it by thought and investigation. In proof 
of this we are referred to the fact that as Jesus grew up he ^'increased 
in wisdom and stature," and that at the very close of his life he 
himself declares that he did not know the day nor the hour of 
Ms own seeond coming. But we must remember that in Jesus 
there was a union of the divine spirit with a perfect human mind, 
and that the latter must unfold and acquire knowledge in growth 
and be limited, in maturity, the same as any other mind. It is 
impossible for us to understand how an omniscient spirit can form 



170 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

a single personality with a spirit that is limited in knowledge; 
but no doubt the increase in wisdomi is to be attributed to the 
hfuman mind, as is the increase in stature to the human body of 
Jesus; and the union of the human and divine mind in the one 
person must be remembered in harmonizing any apparent or real 
limitations in knowledge with his more evident omniscience. The 
Eabbis were astonished at the superior knowledge of Jesus when 
he was only twelve years of age ; and after his human maturity and 
anointing with the Holy Ghost as the Christ of God there is but 
the one place in all the scriptures where a limit seems to be placed 
upon his knowledge. But they are full of testimony to the fact 
that while he walked the earth he was in full possession of all 
knowledge, at least in his divine nature, and that in Ms divine 
nature and omniscience he was in communication with men. It is 
not necessary here to present this testimony in detail. It will be 
sufficient to refer to our Lord's own claims in the matter. In his 
conversation with Nicodemus be said: "Verily, verily, I say to 
thee, we speak that which we know, and testify that which we have 
seen ; and ye receive not our testimony. If I told you the earthly 
things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you the 
heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but he 
who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven." 
(John 3: 11-13.) Here he claims not only to have come from 
heaven, but in some sense to be in heaven even while he speaks, 
and to be bearing testimony to heavenly as well as earthly things, 
and things which he has seen and which he knows.. There could 
not be a clearer nor stronger claim that he was in full possession 
of his divine knowledge and that out of that knowledge he was 
teaching the people. This claim' indeed forms the very warp and 
woof of the gospel of John. Our text m'ost forcibly embodies it. 
It would be folly to declare that he came into the world to bear 
witness to the truth, if that truth was lost or veiled the moment 
he became incarnate. He was born out of heaven's light into 
earth's darkness, but not out of light into darkness himself, for 
he camie as the light of the world. He was bom out of heaven's 
knowledge into earth-'s ignorance, but not out of omniscience into 
ignorance himself, for he was in the world as the very embodi- 
ment of truth and wisdom. 



JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 171 

Jesus, therefore, while in the flesh was thoroughly qualified to 
be a witness to the truth. 

II. His Eeliability as a Witness. 

A man may be thoroughly qualified as a witness in a matter, 
and yet he may not be reliable. He may know all about the case, 
but he may tell anything else but the real truth about it. Even 
though he be thoroughh- honest, yet, owing to human imperfec- 
tion, his testimony may be discounted to some extent. But Jesus 
was not only fully qualified as a witness; he was also perfectly re- 
liable. Surely his divinity, together with his sinless hTimanit}^ 
should put this proposition beyond question. One might dare to 
question his omniscience, but how can any worshiper of the Lord 
question his holy integrity ? 

a. His absolute veracity must be joyfully conceded by all. He 
was Grod manifest in the flesh — the God that cannot lie. He was 
the truth incarnate. It was impossible for him to state a false- 
hood. He could not exaggerate. He would not deceive nor con- 
firm his disciples in an error. There was no bias, nor prejudice, 
nor confusion of thought that would lead him to vary one hair's 
breadth from the strictest truth. Xo Christian will question the 
absolute sincerity of Jesus in all that he said or taught. 

l. But it is possible to be truthful without being faithful. Many 
a man of unquestioned veracity will not be faithful in telling his 
friend all that he ought to know; and many who hate a false- 
hood are not as careful as they might be to confine their testi- 
mony to what they Icnov: as distinguished from what they think. 

But Jesus was the "faithful and true witness." He declared 
"the whole counsel of Grod," so far as humanity was in need of it. 
He revealed the horrors of hell as well as the glories of heaven. 
He excited the Jews to wrath by telling them the truth about 
themselves. And no pain to the human heart, nor persecution 
against himself, prevented him. from declaring the truth that was 
needful. 

Moreover, in his faithfulness, he declared only what he knew 
to be the truth. To take up a false report is no better than l}ing 



172 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST TULPIT. 

at first hand. To proclaim for the truth what one does not know 
to be the truth is to be in part, if not wholly, false. And to give 
either direct or indirect sanction to an error, Imowing it to be 
such, is to prove unfaithful to one's mission as a witness to the 
truth. But Jesus said: "We speak that which we know, and tes- 
tify that which we have seen." "What things I speak, therefore, 
as the Father has said to me, so I speak." Granted, for a mo- 
ment, that Jesus was limited in knowledge. All his testimony 
had regard to the things which he knew. It would be well for 
our modern critics if they would emulate the Master in this re- 
spect. Jesus taught no mere human theories for the truth. He 
did not attempt to force upon the world any uncertain results 
of the latest scientific research. Much less did he fall in with 
stale tradition and "teach for doctrines the commandments of 
men." He was independent of his human environment. He 
taught what he knew. "He spake as one having authority." He 
was back of his age, in advance of his age, and above his age; and 
in all faithfulness, he bore witness to the truth, and the truth only, 
c. The reliability of human testim'ony is supposed to be strength- 
ened by administering an oath to the v^tnesses. And doubtless 
honest men are thereby made more careful and more faithful to 
speak the exact truth. "Men verily svv^ear by the greater; and an 
oatb for confirmiation is to them an end of all strife." But Jesus 
has not only confirmed his testimony by an oath; he has also 
sealed it by his blood. In the face of a horrible death his claim to 
be a witness from* heaven was not relinquished. His testimony 
was neither retracted nor mxOdified. So that in the agonies of the 
cross he proved himself the faithful and true witness, and set the 
seal of his own blood upon the teachings of his life. And then 
when "God raised him from the dead" nothing further was needed 
to proclaim him the one infallible witness of all the ages. 

III. His Mission to the World as a Witness. 

We come now to the formal declaration of Jesus in the text, 
that his mission into the world was to be a witness to the truth. 
This is in harmony with the statements, elsewhere made, that he 



JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 173 

came to seek the lost — to save sinners. Only a witness to the 
truth can save men. 

Darkness covered! the earth, and gross darkness, the people. 
And the whole world was bound with error's chain. There was 
crying need for light and a witness to the truth. Many in Israel 
and multitudes among the Gentiles were growing tired of their 
shackles and of the deepening night. The fullness of time had 
come, and the Son of G-od descended to the earth and became like- 
wise the Son of Man. 

a,. He came in the interest of truth. His mission was to exem- 
plify it in his life, and to set it forth in his teachings. It was to 
break the chains of falsehood that held the human heart in the 
embrace of death, and to loose the bands of error that held the 
human mind in bondage and darkness. It was to flood the world 
with light from heaven, and by the establishment and dissemina- 
tion of the truth to chase the prince of darkness, and the father 
of lies, out of the world into the bottomless pit. 

&. He came not to discover, but to reveal the truth. Jesus 
was no product of natural evolution. He was not simply a great 
man who originated a new system of philosophy or invented a new 
religion. He did not need to investigate. There was nothing for 
him to discover. He knew it all from the beginning. He came 
to reveal and to execute plans and purposes that had been wrought 
out before the foundation of the world. Other men miay investi- 
gate and make discoveries, and demonstrate the truth of their con- 
clusions, if they can. But Jesus was in possession of all truth 
when he entered the world, and, as the ultimate authority, came 
to reveal and to authenticate the truth that the world needed. 

c. In response to this remarkable declaration of our Saviour, 
Pilate asked: "A^Tiiat is truth?" But, like too many others, he 
stayed not for an answer. The question is a proper one, espe- 
cially as regards the truth that Christ came to reveal and to con- 
firm. 

In a very important sense Jesus bore witness to all truth. He 
revealed the gospel outright because it was essential for the world^s 
immediate good, and was something that man could not discover 
himself. He also revealed much as to man's duty and destiny. 



174 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

But he left mucli even in the realm of spiritual things for man's 
intellectual research. He gave his testimony as to some historic 
and some scientific truth. But these great fields of knowledge 
were left almost wholly to man's own exploration. In what sense, 
then, was Jesus a witness to all truth? In the sense that in the 
revelation of himself he revealed the centre and the key to all 
truth. "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowl- 
edge." To give man the true centre from which to carry on his 
investigations, and to put into his hands the key that unlocks the 
treasure-house of all truth, is to be such a witness as becomes the 
greatest of all teachers. 

In the sacred Scriptures we have, in the main, a body of histori- 
cal and theological facts and principles which are sealed as truth 
by the testimony of Jesus. The New Testament is the record of 
his testimony as given in his life and teachings and in the revela- 
tions of his Holy Spirit through apostles and prophets. And this 
record itself bears the authenticating seal of the Spirit upon it — 
a seal which is evident to spiritual discernment, and forces recog- 
nition, as some sort of a distinguishing mark, from the candid 
judgment of all men. 

But Jesus, the infallible witness, bears testimony also to the 
truth of the Old Testament. He certainly knew the origin of 
that Book, and whether or not it was the infallible Word of God; 
and he confirmed the disciples in their belief that it was. He drew 
a clear distinction between this law of God and the traditions of 
men. He asserted that the Scriptures could not be broken. He 
reeognized the writings of Moses, and placed them on a level with 
his own infallible teachings as worthy of all acceptation. To him 
the story of Jonah was not a fable, but a historical fact, typifying 
his own burial and resurrection from the dead. According to his 
testimony, men were in error because they knew not the Scrip- 
tures, which by implication were inerrant. The omniscient Jesus 
knew the Scriptures. He recognized them, not as containing the 
truth, but as the truth, as the infallible Word of God. And his 
testimony must stand against all the professed wisdom of this 
age. He is the world's Highest Critic,, and from his decisions there 
can be no appeal. 



JESUS AS A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. 175 

We have, then, in Jesns, onr Saviour, a perfectly qualified and 
absolntely reliable witness to the truth — the truth of the gospel, 
the truth of the Bible, and the truth of all things upon which he 
gave his testimony. Let Mm be true, but every man a liar. He 
is the one supreme and infallible authority. And above the strife 
of tongues we may still hear the voice of our Heavenly Father 
saying : "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.^' 



176 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XIV 

THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL HOPE* 



By William Eldridge Hatchee, D. D., LL. D. 

Virginia 

"Experience worketh hope." — Rom. 5: 4. 

WE are brought by these words into the shop of the Fazarene 
and allowed to watch him at his work. The machinery of 
grace is fully open to our view, and we can study it while running at 
full blast. We are conducted from point to point in the establish- 
ment, and are shown the several stages of salvation, from- its mys- 
terious beginning to its thrilling end. We actually catch a glimpse 
of the various forces employed in the redemptive scheme. We 
look on the soul as it is brought in and put through those pro- 
cesses by which it is fitted for fellowship with the Father and with 
Jesus Christ, his Son. 

The text fixes our thoughts on a single point, and commands us 
to observe the perform-ances of one operative. Her name is Ex- 
perience, and her business is to produce hope. "Experience 
worketh hope." It is my purpose in the interview of this hour to 
invite you to consider this aspect of the Christian life, and I will 
make my theme 

The Value of the Experimental Hope. 

You observe that the text embodies a doctrine, and when we 
deal with doctrine we have to go into definitions. That is 
always alarming, but it miay soothe you to know that the terms 



♦Annual sermon preaceed before the Southern Baptist Convention, at 
Nashville, Tenn., May, 1893. 




'ILUAi L ^OT^^l^. I. i.. LL. i. 



WILLIAM ELDRIDGE HATOHER ^Yas born -July 25, 1835, in Bedford 
county, Va., where he passed his youth among those blue mountains, where 
were reared such preachers as Drs. J. B. Jeter, Daniel Witt, Harvey Hatcher, 
and A. G. McManaway. He was converted in an old weather-boarded meet- 
ing-house which stood upon a rocky crest among the foothills of the Blue 
Ridge in his native county. It was a summer night, a few candles flickered 
on the walls, the plain mountaineers sang their choral songs; a white-locked, 
mellow-A^oiced man of God told the story of redeeming love — 'and a boy was 
"born again," who, in manhood, took up the wonderful story and has con- 
tinued to tell it for over forty-three years. In June, 1858, he graduated at 
Richmond College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts among the first of his 
class. In August, 1858, he took charge of Bainbridge-Street Church, Man- 
chester, Va. It was a very weak body at that time, but he raised it to a 
membership of four hundred, and made it not only self-sustaining, but one 
of the most efficient churches in the State. From Manchester Dr. Hatcher 
went in March, 1867, to Franklin-Square Church, Baltimore. In October,' 
1868, he became pastor of the First Church in Petersburg, Va., where he 
spent seven years. In 1875 he became pastor of the Grace-Street Church in 
Richmond, Va., where he remained until May 30, 1901, a period of twenty- 
six years. Dr. Hatcher's greatest work was done during this pastorate. In 
1894 a new house of worship was completed at a cost of $68,000. In 1895 
this magnificent building was btirned. Pastor and people nobly went to 
work again, and on January 6, 1901, another house, costing $55,000 and in 
many respects more beautiful than the one destroyed by fire, was dedicated. 
During his pastorate at Grace-Street there were over 2,100 additions to the 
church. During Dr. Hatcher's pastorate Grace-Street had many well-known 
members, among them being the folloAving ministers : Drs. J. B. Jeter, A. 
M. Poindexter, J. B. Taylor, A. B. Brown, A. E. Dickinson, H. H. Harris, 
E. Y. Mullins, and A. J. Barton. From Grace-Street under his ministry 
went out the largest number of members for the organization of Clay-Street 
(now Calvary), West View, and Immanuel Baptist churches, and it con- 
tributed largely to the organization of the Barton Heights Church. Dr. 
Hatcher gave up his wonderful work at Grace- Street on May 30, 1901, in 
order to secure a larger endowment for Richmond College. By the end of 
that year he had secured $75,000 from the Virginia Baptists for their school, 
and in this way added an additional gift of $25,000 from Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller. He continues his work for Richmond College and to bring about a 
unification of the Baptist schools of Virginia. He continues to do much 
evangelistic work also. He is a man of rare and varied gifts, and is not only 
a great preacher, but is especially efficient in pastoral work. His genial 
humor, keen wit, and winning manners make him the centre of attraction 
in the social circle, while his piety, warm sympathies, and deep earnestness 
make him always a welcome visitor to the homes of the people. He is .espe- 
cially popular with the young. He is a writer of keen satire, and is a 
popular lecturer. He easily stands in the front rank of American Baptist 
preachers. His only son, Rev. Eldridge B. Hatcher, author of "The Young 
Professor," a strongly written work dealing with the inspiration of the 
Bible, is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Norfolk, Va. 
(178) • 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPEEIMEXTAL HOPE. 179 

of the text -are few, and our definition will be derived from the 
context, and not from the dictionaries. 

I. This experience, which performs such a service in the sal- 
vation of men, is of high birth. It comes of roj^al ancestr}', and 
has its name in the records of heaven. Its mother is patienc*e, its 
grandmother is tribulation, and its father is the God of all grace. 
It seems strange that tribulation should be found in this family, 
for we think of her as a savage queen, roaming the earth at wiU, 
riding the winds, filling hearts with terror and despair, and strew- 
ing her course with wreck and woe. But our King has enslaved 
her and put her to serve in the nurser}- of Ms household. 

Eough-mannered and severe she still is, but she works well with 
faith and does the Master's bidding. Her task is to produce in 
the souls of the saved the enduring power — a work at once diffi- 
cult and fundamental. This is patience, the meek daughter of 
suffering, and herself the mother of this experience which begets 
hope. 

We must not be ashamed of ancestors so noble and great. While 
we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God our Father, we must 
gloTj in tribulation also. We must not only love patience, the 
sweet mother of our joj's, but we must honor our rugged old 
grandmother, tribulation. Likely enough, we have honored her. 
She has often pinched our ears and cut our backs, as if for her 
own pleasure; but we must give her reverence. It is the test of 
our being true members of the family that we glory in tribulation. 

We need to look well to the pedigree of this experience. Not 
every experience is of the right stock. There is an experience 
that has tribulation for its grandmother and unbelief for its mother. 
It is an experience which is not bom of patience, and it does not 
produce hope. He who fights the battles of earth alone and sees 
no God of battles above him has narrow scope for hope. Little 
victoria he may win and transient successes he may have, but he 
must all the time be depressed by the loneliness of the strife, his 
awn insufficiency, and the inevitable despair which awaits him at 
the end. Being without God, he is without hope. 

Xow, let us be just. I do not say that those who are without 
God are without all hope. They have their hop^. In some it 



180 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

is the buoyancy of a mercurial temperament. It is sufficient to 
float themi while young and successful in their schemes. Others 
have the enthusiasm of youth — a hope unshocked by trial and 
which sees nothing on the path except the flower and the light; 
but when the blood begins to cool and the bones to stiffen that 
hope will die. A scholarly friend said to me the other day that 
the early days of Greek philosophy liad a glow of freshness and 
ardor about themi, but that the frosts of later years turned it all 
to ashes and death. Unbelieving age is hostile to hope^, and death 
is the setting in of despair. It is absolutely pathetic to study the 
schedules adopted by the great men of earth for the regulation of 
their lives, who had not the light of the gospel to tell them what 
to do. 

It is the fashion of the times to sneer at the Epicurean of the 
older days. He was one of the subtlest thinkei's of his country, 
and his decision was that he could get more out of this world by 
lounging through the city gardens, eschewing all friction and toil, 
and giving free rein to his commonest desires. He had to make 
some scheme of life, and why not that? Out on his path stood a 
spectre. It grinned at his frailty and pointed to his doom. Only 
a fragment of time he had, and, with a desperate effort to hide his 
despair, he said : "Let us eat and be merry, for to-morrow we die." 

A brilliant writer of the day has said that the tone of human 
life is m'ournful. It would be nearer to the truth to say that the 
tone is noisy and gleeful, but the undertone is full of sorrow. 
"Let us eat and drink." That is merry, festive, and uproarious. 
"For to-morrow we die." Was there ever a sadder cadence than 
that? And this is life without God. It is a struggle to hide 
from the actual woes of our present state. A celebrated French 
essayist once defined happiness as consisting in a successful diver- 
sion of the mind from the actual sorrows of life. We must re- 
spect the men who without the support of a religious hope have 
done noble deeds. Their contempt for present ease, their pa- 
triotism, and their courage have been sublime. They had hopes, 
bom partly of native vigor, partly of devotion to their country, 
and in some measure of a belief in the triumphant power of right; 
but these hopes could not stand the shocks and blows of actual ex- 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMEN"TAL HOPE. 181 

perience. Stoicism had no power to explain their failures, and no 
assurance as to final triumph. Cato loved his country, and was 
noble enough to die for its liberties; but when he saw the legions 
of Caesar marching unimpeded upon Eome his heart broke and he 
fell upon his own sword. That lofty Athenian, too, whose voice 
was Athens' music, and whose word was Athens' law, had his day 
of glory; but when he saw the fickleness and treachery of those he 
had loved and served he sought the poor relief of a self-inflicted 
death. It is enough to make a good man weep to see Socrates, 
scourged by the tribulations of life, standing at the gate of death, 
with no lamp in his hand and no friendly light ahead of him, try- 
ing to steady himself for that plunge into the night of death, which 
had no gleam of another day. 

But it is grateful to turn from this experience which brings no 
hope to that experimental hope which is the gift of the gospel. 
Such a hope is not merely a lamp which is to serve us at the grave, 
but it is a working force which is to guide us while we live. 

II. This experience is a thing not only of noble origin, but it 
is ripe and well developed. It is well for us to understand that 
there are two experiences, or at least, two strongly-worked phases 
of the same experience. 

1. There is the initial experience of the Christian life. Every 
one who enters the Kingdom' of Christ has an experience. It is 
useless to talk about becoming a Christian without an experience. 
Conviction for sin is an experience; faith in the blood of Christ 
is an experience; love for him who loved us and gave himself for 
us is an experience; and our new-born love for the brethren is an 
experience ; and even our doubts are an experience. Surely no soul 
can ever forget the first tastes of eternal life which it took. 

" O, happy day, which fixed my choice 
On thee, my Savior and my God ; 
Well might this glowing heart rejoice 
And tell its raptures all abroad." 

Even while I speak my quickened soul takes wing and bears me away 
to the weather-boarded meeting-house which stood upon the rocky 
crest of the hill beneath the silent old oaks of my native Bedford, 
in the mountains of Virginia. It was a summer night, a few 



182 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

candles flickered on the walls, the plain mountaineers sang the 
choral songs, a white-locked, mellow-voiced man of God stood in 
the high pulpit, and I, a raw and foolish lad, sat out there think- 
ing of my sins and crying; thinking of what would be my fate if 
God should refuse to be gracious ; thinking and yet afraid to think 
that Jesus died for me; thinking that I was not good like those 
whom Christ saved; thinking that if Christ would take me how I 
would rush to him in a flash; thinking of v.-hat he had said about 
it; thinking — no, I stopped thinking — and fell to believeing that 
he would save me. God of glory, what a moment that was to an 
untutored boy! What did I do? No explosive raptures and no 
ringing shouts, though I have been ashamed of myself ever since 
that I did not make the forests echo with the praises of my Sa- 
viour that night. But I did slip through the crowd, put my head 
on the breast of my old'er brother and did tell him my precious 
secret. 

That was an experience, an experience at the point where the 
waters first broke out, and so good that it can never be forgotten. 
But we must put that experience at its real worth. It was not the 
sum total of religion. There be some who count their initial sen- 
sations of their spiritual life as their stock in trade. They con- 
tinually go back to them. This is as foolish as it would be if you 
should ask a man to givo you the history of his life, and he should 
simply reply by telling you how he felt at the time he was born — 
a thing which he does not well remember. This early experience 
is a good thing to start ^vith, but a sorry thing to stop with. It was 
fitful, unstable, and liable at any time to be obscured with doubt. 
He whose' experience was bigger at the beginning than ever after- 
wards should doubt whether he had the right sort at the beginning. 

Manifestly the experience of the text is different from the holy 
excitement which marked our conversion. It has in it the elements 
of maturity and intelligence. It comes only to those who have 
been some time on the road. It is tho heritage only of those who 
have been long in the service of our King. Tribulation must meet 
us on the way and box and slash us at will. She must spread be- 
fore ns things most charming and such as we clamor for, and 
yet things which are out of reach. She must make us limp with 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL HOPE. 183 

nails in our slioeS;, and not only refuse to pull tliem out, but not 
even let us cry when it hurts. It takes time for us to have these 
experiences, and they come only to those who have the power to 
endTire. 

Here is the pivotal point in the spiritual conflict. It is in the 
enduring power of the child of God. It takes grace and grit to 
be strong under great strains. It is hard to fight, harder still to 
wait, and hardest of all to suiter and be wronged while we wait. 
It is only out of this battle that we can attain unto the experience 
named in the text. 

2. But there is a more essential feature of this experience which 
distinguishes it from the inward exercises which marked the be- 
ginnings of grace in the soul. At our conversion our experiences 
were almost entirely objective. We saw things, saw the Saviour, 
saw the face of God, saw the gates of heaven open to us. The 
joy which thrilled us sprang from those sights. We rejoiced in 
the hope of the glory of God. But the experience of the way is 
different. It is inward and subjective. It is born of conflict and 
stamped upon us in the rude hieroglyphics of the dreadful strug- 
gle. The stigmas of the fight, the cuts and burns which we get 
in the fray constitute this experience. They become a part of us 
and stand as the self-wrought proofs of our spiritual character. 
They are the demonstrations of our sincerity and courage. They 
are the badges of honor won on the field of battle and furnish to 
our own consciousness the testimony in favor of our being heirs 
of heaven. When I see a young cadet strutting around with his 
shining buttons and his golden lace, telling that he feels a mighty 
yearning for the fight, and that he has in himself the sense of his 
power for great achievements, I stand in doubt of him, and doubt 
whether he knows what he is talking about. But when I see a 
battered old warrior coming out of the wars, where for nearly forty 
years he has been a color-bearer, and he tells me: "I know whom 
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard my de- 
posit against that day," I think that he has seen enough to justify 
his confident utterance. 

III. But we must consider the product of this experience. It 



184 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

does things. It brings things to pass. It is an operative and gen- 
erative force. It will repay ns richly to inspect its product. 

It works hope. As I have told you of two experiences, so now 
I must add that there are two hopes. N'ot, of course, that con- 
stitutionally there are two, but that the two phases of the hope 
are so marked that we can deal better with them by treating them 
as distinct. 

1. There is the hope at the beginning. It is described as the 
hope of the glory of God. It is evidently one of the early fruits 
of faith, and points to the radiant future which opens before the 
convert. Let us look at it. As the soul is quickened by faith it 
is suddenly landed clear over into peace with God and finds stand- 
ing-room in the realm of grace. It is overwhelmed with such 
surprising joys that it turns to ask where the thing will stop. It 
turns to the future and begins to reason that, if so much has al- 
ready come, richer things will come hereafter., If already we have 
the love of God so powerfully revealed, may we not see his other 
attributes in the future? Are we not to see the King in his glory 
and share with him in his ultimate victories ? This is the hope of 
the glory of God. 

2. But our business is with the second hope. This is the hope 
which is the production of experience. Its description is m^odest 
and disappointing. All we get about it is that it maketh not 
ashamed. A flat and juiceless thing it seems to be to say of such 
a hope. But let us see. 

As for the hope itself, I must remind you that it is finely con- 
nected. Its mother is experience, its grandmother is patience, and 
its great-grandmother is tribulation. A hope like this is worth 
having. 

It is a tried hope, and its office is to guard us from the shame 
of disappointment. Having subjected our faith to such tests as 
proved its efficiency and power, we become confident. The student 
who has stood some of his toughest examinations successfully feels 
a sense of composure as to the rest. The soldier who has been 
under fire, has felt the shock of the charge and has scattered his 
foes, picks up courage, and is hopeful that lie will conquer to the 



THE VALL'E OF THE EXPERIMEXTAL HOPE. 185 

end. There was a world of hope in that fine,, old strain our fathers 
used to sing with such unction : 

" Through many a conflict, toil, and snare 
I have already come. 
*Twas grace that brought me safe thu.g far, 
And grace \rill lead me home." 

There is a profound difference between these two hopes. I saw 
an excursion ship start out to sea. Her captain walked the deck 
with exultant pride; and why not? For his ship was as new as 
the buds of springtime^ her flag flapped gayly in the summer 
breeze, her sails were new and clean, her keels had never known 
the crash of the storm. There she sat on the smooth sea, beneath 
the friendly sky, and looked as if she was the queen of all waters. 
All on her decks were radiant ^dth hope. They were going out 
to sail the seas, and ever}-thing was bright and hopeful. But that 
night a storm broke upon the little ship. It ripped its sails into 
tatters and cracked the masts. The captain and his company grew 
sick with fright, and, after a night of terror, stole into port next 
morning a-shamed to tell the story of their fright. 

Several years ago I had the pleasure of witnessing an oc-ean gale, 
or perhaps you will think me more sincere if I say that I have the 
pleasure of remembering that I witnessed it. To the inexperienced 
the situation grew serious when all the hatches of the ship were 
closed up; when the sportive waves played leap-frog over the hur- 
ricane deck, and, after smashing the sky-lights, deluged the sa- 
loons; when the storm pressed the ship till the tips of the masts 
kissed the waves; when the lurching ship emptied the passengers 
on the floors and rolled them around like pla^-things; and when 
the ship turned her course lest she might be broken by the waves. 
Times were squally indeed. We had on board a Canadian Presby- 
terian, who was as cold as the Xorth Pole, and, so far as I know, 
fully as tall. For some reason, his Calvinistic creed would not act 
well when the wind was from the northeast, and he was frightened 
almost to death by the storm. He crouched about from place to 
place looking for comfort and finding none. At last he went to 
the captain and asked if there was any hope of saving the ship. 

A brave old seaman was our Commander Brown, and his reply 



186 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

was worthy of him: "Forty years I have followed the seas, and 
more than two hundred times has my ship crossed the Atlantic. 
I have seen the ocean in her maddest moods, but we have always 
pulled through, and I advise you, my good friend,, to go to bed, 
and I promise you fair weather to-morrow." 

That was a hope begotten of experience, and it saved the old sea- 
man from fear and shame. 

IV. We have, also, a hint as to the processes of grace — "Ex- 
perience worketh hope." Our Lord is the head of a great estab- 
lishment, and he has called into service forces of every character 
and description. 

He is the soul of a vast cor]3oration, and he utilizes every force 
in the measureless domain of God for the accomplishment of his 
gracious purposes. Every angel in glory is his messenger, every 
force in nature is made subservient to his plans, and even the 
fiery wraths of hell are made to help on his gracious undertakings., 
He is a driving Master, and makes everything work when he comes 
along. It must give us an impressive view of the stupendous 
grandeur of salvation that every power in the universe is subject 
to Christ, and that he runs everything in the interest of his king- 
dom. 

We have here an example of the application of forces to the 
execution of the will of Christ. Tribulation, a savage and de- 
structive queen, has been caught and put to work. Faitli was 
disposed to lie supinely on the rock of salvation, but the Lord 
commanded faith to arise and go to work. Even experience, though 
born in affliction and trial, has her job also. Her business is to 
hang lamps along the pilgrims^ path and keep them full of oil and 
burning at the top of their capacity. Her lamps burn with the 
light of hope. 

This experimental hope is the glory of the gospel. It is a hope 
which needs to be understood. It must not be confounded with 
a mere volatility of temperament, nor with an idle calculation of 
chances, nor with an idiotic dependence upon luck, nor a conceited 
trust in destiny, nor a stoical contempt for external conditions. 
It is an assurance that the future contains the highest good for 
us, and that assurance is based upon the promises of Godi as 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL HOPE. 187 

f-Qlly exempliiiecl in our experience. It is a case of tasting and 
seeing that God is good. This is, after all, the true optimism. 

This completes the study of the text. The outcome of this in- 
vestigation is that the experimental hope of the gospel is the suf- 
ficient safeguard of the soul and the force by which it is adjusted 
to even' possible situation in the present life. It only remains 
for us to apply the doctrine to the existing conditions and show 
that it is true. 

1. Mark the value of this hope as operating in every well-or- 
dered spiritual life. By what process this soul is assured of its 
salvation is a question not to be considered here, but we may allow 
one remark. Trial is the test of power. A boy knows the strengih 
of his muscle by the weight which he can lift or by the distance 
he can throw. The vitality and force of our faith must be meas- 
ured by actual performance. We get the most profound and satis- 
factory proof of our religious character in the impress made on 
us by the fierce wrestle which we have with the trials of the way. 

Abraham leading the son of the promise up to the altar of sac- 
rifice on Mt. Moriah is a majestic fi^^ire. He towers as the hero 
of faith and is an example for mankind. But Abraham, descend- 
ing the mountain after he has stood the test, is at once an object 
of wonder and of study. Who can ever know the sacred rapture 
which flooded his soul? He had caught himself doing a splendid 
deed and it thrilled him with unspeakable joy. Xot ihat he was 
vain over it, for the capacity to do high things will save us from 
ignoble elation. But the consciousness of such an achievement 
moist have been delightful indeed. I almost fancy that I can hear 
him talking to himself as he quits the mmmtain: *'Why, Abra- 
ham, is this you? Did you do that, old fellow? Well, if you 
stood this shock, you can do other things. There is stuff in you 
which earth never put there and can never take away." 

It was an experience which gave hope. It was a testimony in 
favor of his own character which must have been most inspiring. 

2. Observe this hope as nerving us for our ministrations. We 
are strangely different in many things, but in having a ministry 
to fulfill and in having to go forth weeping to our task we are 
strangely alike. We weep that v;e are not fitter for our business; 



188 THE america:n" baptist pulpit. 

weep that the task is so tremendously solemn; weep that we have 
so many hindrances and dela}^; weep that we see no fruit; weep 
that the Lord seems to forget us; weep that we are tormented by 
so many foes. But the experiences of service have inherent con- 
solation. Our labors turn out better than we thought that they 
would. A hidden strength impels us on to victories that we did 
not foresee. In some gracious way we find compensating returns 
in our work, self-supporting joys, lights in our souls, which seem 
to spring out of the tough processes of service. What would the 
preacher do but for this source of cheer and refreshment? He 
would die of a broken heart but for the gleams of light which 
break out of his tribulations. He knows that experience worketh 
hope. 

3. See how this hope touches the whole story of Christianity. 
There is something almost tragic in the history' of the gospel. It 
has had a curious, almost a disastrous, history. Think how things 
have gone; think of the churches which sprang up under the 
apostolic ministry and then utterly perished; think of the mil- 
lions who for their faith were put to death; thinly of the coun- 
tries once evangelized, but afterwards recaptured by the enemy 
of our King; think of the attacks on the Bible, its mistranslations, 
its misinterpretations, and its grievous perversions by its false 
friends; think of the jars, strifes, and schisms in the body of 
Christ; think of the apathy, infidelity, and impurity in the best- 
organized forms of Christianity ; think of the defiance and blatancy 
of our Lord^s foes, and think how heavily the wheels of the King's 
chariot seem to move on to the conquest of the world. Truly our 
Lord is still a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. There 
is ample material for creating a strong case of pessimism, and the 
opportunity is at hand for the croaker to get in his work. 

But the gospel need not blush at its history. No ill ever struck 
it which the Lord said would not come. It has done well. Mil- 
lions of souls have been saved by the blood of the Lamb and are 
safely housed in heaven. The Bible has shown that it is superior 
to every hostile force that can be brought against it. The gospel 
has put its imprint on the laws, civilization, literature, and art 
of the world in a way which can never be undone.. The wealth 



THE VALUE OE THE EXPERIMENTAL HOPB. 189 

and leaming of the world are fast coming to the feet of Christ. 
The friends of God were never so numerous, so united, or so ag- 
gressive as now. The enginery of earth is being gradually com- 
bined for the furtherance of the gospel. The experience of the 
gospel in the earth inspires cheerfulness. 

4. Apply the doetrine to our modern movement for the evange- 
lization of the world. 

We must confess that this undertaking has had a stormy career. 
I almost wonder if Carey and Thomas, those splendid harbingers 
of this enterprise, had they known into what sorrows they were 
leading their brethren when they started this movement, would 
not have taken Sister Carey's advice and staid in England. What 
conflicts we have had ! What obstacles in the field — legal com- 
plications, racial hostilities, linguistic bothers, social customs, false 
religions, and commercial entanglements! What troubles with 
our missionaries ! Some who said they would go, and did not ; 
some who went, saw, and quit; some whose health failed, and some 
who failed in other points; some who knew too little, and some 
who knew too much; some who went loose on doctrine, and some 
on money; some who fell out with each other, and some who fell 
out with the board. Well, you know the other things. What 
tribulations, too, about the converts — so fickle or so mercenary; 
so false in doctrine and sometimes in heurt; so hard to wean from 
their old ways. Troubles also with the churches — so periodic and 
unsteady, so grudging in their gifts, and so easily estranged from 
their work! And what fiery combats we have about the way the 
thing ought to be done — some brethren caring for this and others 
for that, until "the more part knew not wherefore they were come 
together!" You see, foreign missions is a large business and has 
its difficulties. 

But I uncover my head to the Baptists for the centennial of mis- 
sions. It is an event of thrilling significance. It is the shout 
of the advancing host. It is the ringing out of the old century 
with the bells of hope. It is experience grasping the banner of 
Immanuel and waving us on to new conquest. Standing on the 
middle line of the century ending and the century just opening, 
our brethren everywhere catch inspiration from the heroic past, 
and spring out into the new century intent on greater things. 



190 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

But grant me a few more worde and I will discharge you from 
an audience too extended. 

( 1 ) It is easy, in the light of this doctrine, to account for the fits 
of despondency which sometimes appear among our people. It is 
not hard to interpret the complaints and criticisms which now and 
then miurmur along our lines. I refer not to courteous and dis- 
criminating discussion of our work, but to that fretful outcry 
against the work of our people which is heard ever and anon. It 
is only a case of tribulation without patience, ending in an experi- 
ence without hope. The brother who has grown despondient about 
the slowness of results ought to give the gospel more time, for the 
Lord does his best work slowly. He who thinks the denomina- 
tional machinery is not running well, and would like to pull it 
all to pieces and make it over again, hath need of patience. He 
who is bewildered by the obstacles in the road of prograss ought 
to glory in tribulation. The murmurers in the wilderness are 
a hoary-headed set and began business a long time ago. Their 
case is easily diagnosed; it is a case of tribulation with the pa- 
tience omitted and of an experience which begets gloom and dis- 
satisfaction. If in the name of our Redeemer we will suffer tribu- 
lation together, we will doubtless come again bringing our 
sheaves with us. 

(2) We see the exact light under which the host of God is to 
move — not as those who have a sure certainty, not under the soft 
enthusiasm which enjoys constant success, not alone under the 
light of the promises of God as something outside of us. We are 
to do our work under the light of this experimental hope. Be- 
tween the lines of the history of former toils and conflicts we read 
the secret of the Lord. It was our comfort in the day of strug- 
gle, and the memory of it is our present light. 

It was one of the highest honors of my life that I spent several 
weeks with George B. Taylor in Italy. One day, as we were 
climbing together one of the heights of the Apennines, I turned 
on him and asked: ''Brother George, how do you feel about the 
conversion of Italy?" "Well," he replied, "God has brought us 
here, and he is blessing us ; and while I know not the time or the 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL HOPE. 191 

seasons of the Son of Man, I feel that we are here to do our part 
in preparing for his glorious coming/' That was trusting in a 
realized promise. That promise is dyed in our experience and 
written on our souls. 

Here is our safety. If we begin to peer out for the coming of 
the Son of Man, we are sure to get in trouble. We stop our work 
to watch for him. We grow weary because he delayeth his com- 
ing. We make out a schedule for his second appearing, and feel 
quite piqued if he does not come in on schedule time. We per- 
suade ourselves that if we could only send a few brawny-armed 
miessengers to clang the gospel bells in every countiy, he would 
have to come. Look not this way nor that, brethren, for the 
Lord. Fix your eye on your work. Remember how he has been 
with you you in the past and keep driving at it. 

y. But let nothing that has been said be construed into a dis- 
paragement of the glories of the future. It is not the design of 
the experimental hope to abate our interest in the splendors of 
the world to come. It is only intended to enlarge and exalt us in 
such measure as to fit us to apprehend the things which are laid 
up for us. The experiences of earth are preparatory. 

It is noble to becom^e so absorbed in the King's business as to 
forget awhile what the future holds for us. But, ! the future 
must be full of interest to the soul who has felt the powers of the 
world to come. There are burnings within us which drive us 
mad with expectation. We stand upon the shore and wonder what 
we shall see when the ship comes to take us over the sea. These 
longings are a part of our new being and are provided for in the 
gospel. 

There is our mighty yearning after the presence and fellow- 
ship of our King. That hope of his glory, kindled in us at the 
first, bums on with quenchless ardors, and we can hardly tarry 
till he comes. Why, we are only in the outer room, washing and 
Changing our garments and getting read|y to pass in to see him, 
whom' we love. Let us not rush half-dressed into his presence. 
When we have learned the fellowship of his sufferings we will then 
be ready for the fellowship of his glory and power. 

Then, too there is our solicitude concerning our character. We 



192 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

droop SO far below the ideal of the gospel and so far below our 
own breathings aft^r perfection that we despond. The future of 
our character is safe. "Beloved, now are we the children of God, 
and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that 
if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see 
him as he is. And every one that hath this hope p\i4'ifieth him- 
self, even as he is pure." There is the picture for you. The child 
of grace purifying himself and waiting for his Lord, and the Lord 
promising that we shall be satisfied when we awake in his likeness. 



ALOXZO CHUIIC'H BARKOX was born r.ear Coluiiibu?, Ga., in 1S44. 
He was reared in Alabama, gr:uluatiii.2 at the ^Methodist school of that 
State. His first pastorate was in lS(i7-"09, the Adams-Strjet Baptist 
Clnirch, ^lontgoniery, Ala. The Iniilding, then incomplete, was finished and 
furnished. Following this was a two years' pastorate in Tus.kegee. In 1871 
lie succeeded Dr. J. William Jones in the pastorate of the church at Lex- 
ington, Va. From tliere he went to Culpe])er, Va., where he served six years. 
In 1S80, while pastor at Culp^per, he held a meeting at Berryville, Va., and 
the editor of thi.s volume was converted under liis preaching. For eighteen 
months h.e was pastor in Berryville, Clarke county, Va. In 1884 he ac- 
cepted the call of a new congregation formed on Fulton avenue, Baltimore^ 
Md. Here he served for eleven years, during which time a large stone 
house of worship was built and a membership of four hundred gathered. 
During this time, in partnership with Dr. H. M. \Yhai'ton, forming the 
firm of Wharton &. Barren, the Baltimore Baptist was established and a 
large bookstore and publishing house conducted. For two years he traveled 
as an evangelist. In December, 18iJ6, he accepted a call to Tryon-Street 
Baptist Church, a large and prosperous church located in Charlotte, X. C, 
which he continues to serve. In this growing city and surrounding country 
he has abundant opportunity for the exercise of his evangelistic gifts. He 
has calls from every direction and assists many neighboring pastors. He is 
well known at the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. 
(193 J 




/A\ "" miS{lS...u.. L^a 1^0 



THE SCARLET LINE. 195 



XV 

THE SCARLET LINE 



By Alonzo Church Barron^ D. D., 

North Carolina 

"She bound the scarlet line in the window." — Joshua 2: 21. 

ERE he crossed over the Jordan, with the children of Israel, into 
the promised land, Joshna, possibly at divine direction — more 
probably in the exercise of that common sense for which he was 
noted — sent over two men to '^spy out the land.^' Of course, they 
visited Jericho, a great walled city, the key of the whole situation. 
Here they found shelter and protection in the house of "a woman 
who was a sinner" — ^Rahab, the harlot. She seems at once to recog- 
nize them as servants of the Most High God, and determined to 
protect them at the risk of her own life. The king, hearing of the 
presence of these spies, sends to demand that they be delivered to 
his soldiers to be killed. Forewarned, perhaps, she hides them upon 
the housetop under the stalks of flax; tlien meets the officers with a 
smooth face and smoother tongiie, and sends them on a iooVs 
errand after men they never will find. She then returns to the 
spies on the housetop, tells them how terror-stricken are the people 
of Jericho at the marvellous miracles wrought by God for his 
people, and pleads for the salvation of her father and mother, 
brotliers and sisters. These men make a covenant with her as she 
arranges to let them down in a basket through a window, her house 
being on the wall. A scarlet line or cord is used to sustain the 
basket. This scarlet cord she is told to bind in the same window, 
and by this all Israel would know and protect the house of Rahab 
when the Lord should give the city into their hands, as she and 
they knew he would do. Such is the simple but interesting story. 



196 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Doubtless that very night she ^^bound the scarlet line in the win- 
dow.'^ 

I. As that line waved to and fro in Kahab's window it became the 
symlbol of her faith, her faith in the God of Israel and his promise 
to give this land, including Jericho, into the possession of his 
people. "I know/' she said, ^^that the Lord hath given you the 
land; your terror has fallen upon us. We have heard how G-od 
dried up for you the Dead Sea'' and did other wonders. My people 
are maddened at this, and determined to oppose you to the bitter 
end. My desire is to come under the protecting wing of your God. 
^*The Lord, your God," is frequently upon her lips. This shows 
how she longed to call him lier God. It was remarkable faith, when 
we consider that she was both a heathen and a native of the land. 

1. But she renounced Iter gods and her country to come, like 
Ruth, under the protecting wing of Jehovah. Like Ruth, too, by 
this step she came into line with the wonderful purposes of God. 
It was no light thing to do, and her recompense was sure, as is the 
recompense of all who follow her in the path of renunciation. 
^^Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow me," and the promise 
is we shall have treasure in heaven. 

2. Her faith led her to surrender completely to God. It seemed 
to her madness to stand against him, so she virtually said : ^^I want 
to fall into line with the purposes of God. I give myself com- 
pletely to him. Your cause shall be mine." Like the people of 
Jericho, she had been a rebel against God; now she "grounds the 
arms of her rebellion," takes the oath of allegiance, and is no longer 
an alien. This act of surrender is enjoined upon every rebel against 
God, and as Rahab found mercy of the Lord in her day, so shall 
we in our day. Saul of Tarsus found it sweet to surrender. From 
the day he said, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" he was 
truly blessed. Every day brought new duties to be done and new 
tokens of the Divine favor. 

II. Another remarkable thing about Rahab was her obedience. 
This is a grace alwa}!^ well-pleasing to God. It made Abraham the 
"father of the faithful." It proclaims us the children of God. "If 
ye love me, ye will keep my commandments." 

1. This seems to have been an act of very prompt obedience. 



THE SCARLET LINE. 197 

There is no break in the connection. We are told of the covenant 
made between the woman and the spies; then of their being let 
down in the basket; then of their direction to bind this same line 
in the window, and immediately it is added, "And she bound the 
scarlet line in the window,'^ as if it were done instantly. There was 
wisdom in this. She could lie down now and feel secure. "All is 
well. I am under the protection of this covenant. I have no fears 
about my safety." Is this not what God means when he tells us, 
"Now is the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation" ? How 
terrible the risk of those who say to-morrow will do? Prompt 
obedience brings "blessed assurance," for then we can say, "Jesus 
is mine." 

2. It certainly was exact obedience. "She bound this scarlet line 
in the window" — ^not some other perhaps less valuable line, nor in 
some other place. Commandments are exact; obedience must be 
exact also. We deal with a being "who knows no variableness nor 
shadow of turning." It is a dangerous thing to substitute some- 
thing else for God^s direction. Let us not only be obedient, but 
exactly obedient to all God^s requirements. 

III. The henevoUnce of EoJidb is as striking as her faith and obe- 
dience. Eemember that she was an outcast woman, a public charac- 
ter, and th-at, even in wicked Jericho, made her to be shunned by 
her sex and abhorred of her family. Perhaps her name had ceased 
to be mentioned in her father's house. She was as one dead to her 
own brothers and sisters. I question if she had crossed the threshold 
of her father's house in years. Bearing this in mind, think of that 
picture on the housetop when the king's soldiers have been turned 
away and the spies lie in the flax. Hear Eahab as she pleads with 
these servants of God for salvation — ^not for herself; not once does 
she ask them to save her. For whom, then, does she plead? Her 
mind's eye goes out over the crowded city to a home she had dis- 
honored, to a family upon whom she had brought reproach — to her 
father, whose gray hairs were bending downward to the grave; to 
h^r mother, whose heart she had broken by her sin and shame. For 
these she pleads. "Save my father and mother," she cries; "yes, 
my brothers and sisters, w^ho will not speak to me in the street. 
Oh ! save them. It matters little what becomes of me," she passion- 



198 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ately exclaims. "Let me be the instniment of their deliverance. 
Let me bring joy and gladness once more to those I have so dis- 
honored.^' She receives the promise, and joy fills her heart, l^ext 
morning she starts early upon her errand of mercy. I can see her 
as she comes once more to the home she had so foolishly deserted to 
walk the paths of sin and shame. She is a stranger there now. The 
{servants do not recognize her and seek to block her way. But she 
knows well every nook and corner of the old house, and the place 
where father and mother were wont to sit. Quickly she pushes her 
way into their presence, falls at their feet, makes her confession, 
tells her story, and pleads with them, one and all, to come under 
the protection of that scarlet line. There is much of weeping and 
pleading, but bye and bye her earnestness prevails, and they give 
the promise to gather beneath her roof. There they find deliver- 
ance and salvation the day Jericho falls. Not a hair of their heads 
is injured. The scarlet line always brings protection and safety. 

Need I say that there is another scarlet line in God's Word? 
It begins way back beyond that of Eahab's, and runs away beyond 
it to Calvary's height. It is the symbol of redemption in Christ. 
Let us bind this scarlet line in our window; let us come under its 
protection, and it shall be well with our souls. 



DAVID MARSHALL RA:\ISEY was bora in Greenville county, S. C, 
October 10, 1857. He is the only son of Andrew and Martha Gaines Ram- 
sev. On the paternal side he is descended from the Ramseys of Scotland, 
although his grandfather, Samuel Ramsey, came to America from the north 
of Ireland in 1819. On the maternal side he is a member of the Broaddus 
family of Virginia, his great-grandmother being a sister of Andrew Broad- 
dus, Sr., the celebrated Virginia preacher, whose fame as a pulpit orator 
secured for him calls to leading pastorates in Boston, Xew York, 
Philadelphia, and Richmond. Dr. Broaddus accepted none of these calls. 
however, excei3t the one to Richmond, where he was pa.stor of the First Bap- 
tist Church for a brief period. He preferred country pastorates. Mr. 
Ramsey is an alumnus of Richmond College, Virginia, and is a full 
graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louis- 
ville, Ky. While yet a student at the Seminary, and for a few months after 
graduation, he was pastor of Glens Creek and Hillsboro churches in Wood- 
ford county, Ky. In May, 1888, Dr. Ramsey accepted the pastorate of the 
Tuscaloosa Baptist Church at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Resigning this charge in 
1892, he became pastor of the Citadel Square Baptist Church in Charleston, 
S. C, where he now labors. The building of this church originally cost 
seventy-five thousand dollars, and during the pastorate of Dr. Ramsey 
valuable additions of a material kind have been made, while the member- 
ship has greatly increased. Citadel Square is in every way one of the best 
churches in the South. The former pastors were Drs. J. R. Kendrick, Lucius 
Cuthbert, Edwin T. Winkler, J. C. Chambliss, Charles A. Stakely, J. H. 
Ford, and Edwin C. Dargan. Dr. Ramsey, easily the peer of any one of his 
distinguished predecessors, is the leading minister of Charleston to-day, 
enjoys the respect and admiration of the entire city, while no other preacher 
in South Carolina has a wider or more enviable reputation. Dr. Ramsey 
has marked executive talent. He is President of the Board of Trustees of 
Furman University and a Trustee of the Southern Baptist Theological Semi- 
nary, He has contributed to the literature of the day with pamphlets, ser- 
mons, and addresses, as well as with articles for magazines. Howard Col- 
lege, Alabama, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
On February 9, 1888, Dr. Ramsey was married to Miss Mary R. W^oolfolk, 
daughter of Dr. Joseph Woolfolk, of Versailles, Ky., a lady whose graces of 
person and manner, as well as her accomplishments of mind and beautiful 
character, render her a worthy companion of this distinguished clergyman. 
A winsome little girl, Eudora, adds charm to the delightful home of Dr. and 
Mrs. Ramsey. 
(199) 




ffiw/iiiiii i. iAllEV, i. i. 



A SAMPLE OF GRACE. 201 

XVI 

A SAMPLE OF GRACE 



By Dayid Marshall Ramsey^ D. D._, l- 

South Carolina 

'*'Who, wh.en he came, and liad seen the grace of God, wa^s glad, and ex- 
horted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the 
Lord."— Acts 11: 23. 

HERE is the opening of the gateway of grace to the Gentile 
world. There is no flourish of trumpets, but all is accom- 
plished as silently as ISTature's forming of her dew-drops. It was a 
marvellous thing which took place in some back street in Antioch 
when this little church around the comer was projected. The men 
of C^-prus and C}Tene, untaught in the schools — no theologians, no 
orators — far more straightforward and guileless than Antonj^, being 
nothing but ^'plain, blunt men" that loved humanity with a passion 
for souls kindled at the divine altar, came to Antioch and preached 
the gospel to the Greeks, who were not Hellenists or Greek-speaking 
Jews, but the hated Gentiles. Far up in the mountains of God's 
love there bursts a rivulet which is destined to become that majestic 
river, the streams whereof shall make glad the cit}^ of God. 

"Whether we think, therefore, of the obscure men who were used 
in planting this church, or of the sweet-spirited, open-hearted 
Barnabas, their first distinguished visitor, or of the strange and 
unforeseen solution of the most perplexing problem of early times, 
or of the world-wide consequences of the informal action of taking 
the heathen into the fold, the piece of history from which my text 
is taken is replete with tender interest and abiding instruction. 

It seems to be entirely proper to view this incident as furnishing 
a sample of God's perpetual grace, and as such it is full of soul- 
stirring truth, invaluable everywhere to our Father's large family. 



202 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

THE GRACE OF GOD AT WORK 

Mysterious are tlie workings of grace. It was by the death of 
Stephen and the savage persecution following upon that tragic 
event that many lines of evangelization were projected. God does 
fight the devil with fire^, though of different kind, which no ice can 
chill and no violence extinguish. The effort to pnt out God's fire 
causes the flying sparks, borne by heaven's own breath, to ignite 
a thousand other structures. With the deacon's buried body lying 
stark and cold under the rude cairn outside the city walls, three 
separate and distinct lines of evangelization are recorded, namely, 
Philip's mission to Samaria, Peter's to Cornelius, and that of these 
nameless men who came to Antioch. Ah! my brethren, how true 
it is that we should sow by all waters. So humble and obscure were 
these early preachers that their very names have passed under the 
wave of oblivion, and, though they were devoid of learning and 
special training, and innocent of all the adroit measures of party 
leaders, without office and ordination, equipped only with hearts of 
burning devotion to their crucified and risen Lord, yet long before 
Paul stood on Mar's Hill, in full view of the fair images of the 
Parthenon and in the presence of that most exclusive and opinion- 
ated race of earth, declaring that all men are God's offspring, and 
that he is not far from all of us, these nameless preachers, with 
that splendid intuition which godly men of common sense ofttimes 
possess, burst into the night of heathenism bearing the torch of the 
everlasting gospel. "God moves in a mysterious way his wonders 
to perform." 

May I be pardoned for extending a humble tribute to the labors 
of those lowly but true men who, under many difficulties, preached 
a powerful gospel in our own land. I would speak a word of 
merited praise to the living and lay a sprig of acacia on the grave 
of the departed. Of course, there is no disparagement of an edu- 
cated ministry intended; for if it be true that God can do without 
our learning, he needs our ignorance still less ; and yet, after all, it 
does not matter whether the water be brought to the thirsty lips in 
the old spring gourd or in a jeweled chalice. "The main thing is, 
does it hold good measure?'^ Tlie cup of salvation which they 



A SAMPLE OF GRACE. 203 

pressed to their own lips and, calling upon the name of the Lord, 
passed along held good measure and was full. 

Again, grace is majestic in its working. Here we have God's 
way of solving great, fiiss}^, and complicated problems. There was 
trouble in that early church in Jerusalem, which possessed at least 
one mark of a Baptist church. Already it was becoming evident 
that Christianity was not intended for a sect, but was destined to 
become a world religion. The Gentiles must come in, but how? 
Jerusalem's bewildered echo answered, "How?*' IS^either human 
authority, nor learning, nor acute reasoning powers, nor aught 
that earth had to give could solve the problem and bring peace. It 
was a dark day. 

Amid all the confusion there was a lovely form, all unseen, which 
emerged from the city and sped away with calm lips, radiant eyes 
and generous hands wide open. She entered a heathen city. It 
was God's messenger, Grace, in all her lustrous beauty and majestic 
sweetness. In her hand she brought salvation. "The hand of the 
Lord was with them." Somehow, they came to understand that 
God had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. It was 
Grace's own hour and her own work. There are problems whose 
solution belongs as naturally to grace as tears to sorrow, as light to 
sunshine and smiles to joy. 

I am all admiration for the simple grandeur in which God works. 
I have sometimes thought that it must be a source of innocent 
amusement to the angels to look out and see how men have fenced 
up with cob-webs the road where heaven's chariot is to go, and then 
see God reach out his hand and brush them all away, leaving men 
wondering how in the world it was ever done! Columbus tapped 
the egg on the table and showed his men that, sure enough, it could 
stand on its little end. The great explorer had on board his little 
vessel in 1492 a book perfectly satisfactory to the scholars of the 
day proving there could be no Western continent, but there was the 
land ! It used to be an axiom that there could be no life in the sea 
beyond a certain depth, because pressure and absence of light would 
make life impossible, but the dredge at last brought up living 
things with eyes in their heads from a depth of five miles. "How 
can the Gentiles come into the church ?", asked the Jerusalem wise- 



204 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT., 

acres. But Grace stretched out lier hand and opened the door and 
they just walked in, leaving the objectors with a new question, "How 
did they get in T' If the river of salvation cannot flow, he opens a 
new channel, as earthly rivers ha^e done, cutting square across vast 
ledges of rock when some ancient landslide stopped their course. 
So God did in the early days of Christianity, and so he will ever do. 
Furthermore, grace is 'practical in an eminent degree in all her 
ways. If what has been said of the mystery and majesty of the 
operations of grace should lead to the impression that it is too 
celestial and unearthly for our reason to grasp, it would be an un- 
fortunate mistake. Grace at work is the final test of essential ortho- 
doxy. Any orthodoxy that is not sweet, flexible, and helpful is 
justly an object of suspicion. Men are constantly calling for some 
theoretical test for the soundness of a brother's creed. Many have 
arisen from time to time claiming a monopoly for applying the test. 
Eome has elaborated a complicated system of identification as 
marks of the true church, but fairness and candor denominate the 
"old mother's" position, arrogant assumption and narrow pedantry. 
All the water of life does not flow along that little mill-race, for it 
cannot be confined to the small pipes of sacraments and orders. 
Augustine said, "Where Christ is there is the church." Others 
would say. Where grace is there is the church. I v,^ould offer this 
definition of a church: where the grace of God is found among 
men and women cleaving to Christ there is a church. Get this and 
the rest that we love to emphasize will follow. To my thinking, a 
camp in the Salvation Army might be called a church with more 
claim for correctness than some grumbling, cold, belligerent body 
holding to the form of godliness and denying the power thereof by 
having no loving tolerance for a brother and utterly devoid of any 
Christ-like passion for souls. I am in love with that little church 
on some back street hard by the river Orontes. Its most conspicu- 
ous characteristic feature was the grace of God at work. 

GRACE EXAMINED 

The examination day came. When the conservative brethren of 
tlie mother church heard of the phenomenal and unauthorized work 



A SAJ^IPLE OF GRACE. 205 

in the heathen city the}^ at once arranged for an investigation. 
This portion of the subject can be developed best by directing 
attention to the deputation of Barnabas to Antioch. This was a 
good man who was commissioned to visit the new church and look 
into its strange and daring work. Kind-hearted, free from preju- 
dice, open to conviction, ever eager to be helpful even to the point 
of pressing an obscure man into prominence, Barnabas was emi- 
nently qualified for this most difficult undertaking. Too much 
stress need not be laid on the spirit of hostility felt by the Jeru- 
salem church towards this irregular movement which had sprung 
up at Antioch; still it cannot be doubted that both the church and 
Barnabas had many misgivings as to the correctness of the course 
pursued by the brethren who had received the Greeks into the 
church. Use your imagination with what you know of human 
nature, and the storm cloud looms large above the horizon. He 
came and he saw — and pray, what did he see? Wonderful things 
burst upon his astonished gaze. After careful thought I am con- 
vinced that it was not a miracle-working hand that he beheld, for 
there is no intimation of that ; not the Holy Ghost in manifest and 
visible power as on the day of Pentecost; not a vision such as Peter 
had in doing a similar work at C^sarea. What then? Barnabas 
calls it the grace of God. It was that new but now familiar and 
strangely sweet manifestation of the love of the redeemed leaping 
from the hearts of pardoned sinners like incense from the holy 
altar. 

Inspiration has not seen proper to record the details of Barnabas' 
examination. He appeared, doubtless, in one of their meetings, all 
of which much resembled our prayer meetings, and you can let 3'Our 
imagination out without fear. It would have done your redeemed 
soul good to be there. There may have been some sense of restraint 
felt when the distinguished visitor came in, but it could not last. 
Christianity was young, the sense of pardoned sins strong, and 
em.otion sweet and luxurious. It was a scene of lustrous beauty to 
eyes that had been opened. It was heaven to them '"to think on 
mercies past and future good implore." Their hopes were as bright 
as heaven's evening torches, and their penitential tears as thick as 
the drops of the morning. I laiow not vrlio led the meeting — some 



206 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST TULPIT., 

shrinking saint whose name is perished from the annals of men, 
bnt writ large on the Lamb's book of life. I know not what the 
theme was — some melting conception of the grace of him who was 
rich bnt became poor for onr sakes. 

Barnabas was there. 

He came, he saw, he was conquered. Then the visitor did a 
truly fme thing. Without waiting to get the opinion and approval 
of his chnrch, so as to know the mind of his constituency; without 
any quirks and quibbles, such as saying that there are some things 
to be commended, but your v/ork is irregular without ordination; 
there, too, seems to be some excitement, and only the poorer classes 
are being reached, but rather there was a superb touch of nature 
which shall never be forgotten while books are read. When he saw 
the grace of God he was glad and said so right on the spot. Oh; 
for more Christians who are glad by reason of grace. Tell me the 
depth of a Christian man's joy at seeing the grace of God in the 
salvation of souls, and I will give you the measure of his own suc- 
cess as an agent in saving the souls of his fellow-men. Oh ! brethren, 
would that we could be lifted up where Barnabas stood and see the 
mighty rush of God's power, the vast breadth of his working, and 
the onward sweep of his grace; be glad, and say so. 

GRACE TRIUMPHANT 

It is a thrilling record of victories. The channel is opened and 
the full river of salvation flows to a lost world. Little do these 
obscure men know that they are laying the foundation for a change 
from a Jewish sect to a world-embracing church. The distin- 
guished visitor remains and becomes one of them. They strengthen 
their zeal with method. Saul of Tarsus is found and his large gifts 
brought into requisition. The conservatism of Jerusalem is thrown 
off, and Antioch becomes the capital of Christianity. Nobility 
begets nobility, and the spirit of Barnabas and Saul is infused into 
the gentile body. The Greek Christians, touched by the moral 
grandeur of the new world religion, came to feel that their kindred 
elsewhere must be induced to cast away their degradation and old 
idolatries and shed their worn-out religion for the robes of right- 



A sa:\iple of grace. 207 

eousness. So v>dth this large idea came a great day. Moved by the 
Holy Spirit, they deliberately and with tender solemnity set apart 
their two leading men to bear forth the sweet story of redeeming 
love. A few days later there was a new thing under the snn — a mis- 
sionary ship set sail from the port of Seleucia bearing a world-em- 
bracing and world-conquering religion. 

Xote that grace in achieving her victories does not work alone, 
but co-operates with man. In Barnabas' exhortation the Chris- 
tians are to have purpose of heart. There must be conviction reach- 
ing to the very centre of one's being for telling victories to be 
scored. Joseph purposed in his heart that his heart should be pure, 
and. though his path lay through a dungeon, it led to a throne. 
Moses purposed in his heart that he would suffer affliction with the 
people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, 
and 

"This was the bravest warrior 

That ever buckled a sword; 

This the most gifted poet 

That ever breathed a word." 

Laniel purposed in his heart that he would not eat the hinge's meat, 
and with electric flash heaven decreed that the lions should be de- 
prived of their feast. Wiclif purposed in his heart that the common 
people of his own country should have and read a Bible in their 
own language, and to-day he breathes through every line of our 
English Bible. Spurgeon purposed in his heart that the middle 
classes should have the gospel, and he became the most princely soul 
in that land of kings. 

The last word is the most important, for it contains the secret of 
all power. Barnabas urged the brethren at Antioch to cleave unto 
the Lord. Grace wins her victories in the domain of the heart. 
There is her kingdom, there is her standing army. Satan trembles 
to see the feeblest saint upon his knee, and the secret of that mystic 
power is in loving and loyal adherence to the personal Christ. 
"The sum of all objective religion is Christ, the simi of all subjec- 
tive religion is cleaving to Christ.''' Cleaving to him is our manual 
for practical duty, and Christ is our creed. It is refreshing to turn 
from the writings and methods of work of our day and see how the 



208 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT., 

early Christians found in a living, personal Lord the realization 
of all their manifold and deep needs for time and eternity. The 
key to the Book of Acts is the work of an ascended personal Lord 
in and for his believing children. Both the law of life and our 
ability to grasp and keep that law are found in him. I am in deep 
sympathy with the tendency of that portion of the religious thought 
of our day that makes Christ the centre of all theology and the 
efficient cause of all that is good in our civilization. More and 
more men are turning their faces and gazing across the dark, foggy 
waves toward the harbor where that uplifted hand holds the torch 
that enlightens the world. Day by day that solemn, gracious figure, 
like some majestic Mont Blanc lifting its sublime brow above all 
around and "visited all night by troops of stars/' seems to men 
nearer than all else to heaven and peace. Other names are like 
those stars which blaze awhile in our firmament and then go dark- 
ling into space and oblivion, but this luminary lighted never, ex- 
tinguished never, unlike our sun which astronomers say by the long 
expenditure of light will be shorn of its beams and shall at last, be- 
reaved of her daughter planets, wander rayless and solitary in 
space. He, the Master of eternity's unwasting ocean of light and 
life, shall suffer no diminution. 

Dear brethren, here and here only is the source of our strength 
and the secret of our power — cleaving to this unchanging Lord. 
It is enough. Enough for the young Christian fresh-girded for the 
race ; enough for the aged saint unbuckling his armor and pluming 
for the last flight; enough for the mystic writing his immortal 
"Imitation of Christ,^' and enough for our toiling professor of pre- 
cious memory who used to sit in his chair and say to each outgoing 
class : "When you have done what seems your utmost, preach just a 
little more for the sake of him. who dearly loves to preach but must 
sit here"; enough for our veteran missionary who said, "I try to 
sink myself, that I may lift up Christ," and enough for you and me, 
brethren and fathers, who, in our obscure places, have our trials and 
difficulties known, perhaps, only to us and our adorable Lord. 



WILLIAM ^^'ARREX LAXDRUM is the eldest son of the late Rev. Dr. 
Sylvanus Landrum and his wife, Eliza Warren Landrum. He was born at 
Macon, Georgia, January 18, 1853. He professed conversion and was bap- 
tized March 25, 1866, and was received into the First Baptist Church of 
Savannah, Georgia. He was educated at Mercer University, Georgia, and 
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1872. 
He then attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, He has been 
pastor successively of the First Baptist Church, Shreveport, Louisiana; 
First Church, Augusta, Georgia; Second Church, Richmond, Va., and is 
now in charge of the First Church, Atlanta, Georgia. He has served as a 
member of the Foreign Mission Board, and is now President of the Home 
Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. His high character, 
genial manner, and pulpit gifts have made him one of the most popular 
and useful ministers in America. 

Hon. James Taylor Ellyson, for several terms Mayor of Richmond, and 
who had Dr. Landrum as his pastor at the Second-Baptist church in that city 
for fourteen years, saj's: "Dr. W. W. Landrum as a preacher is possesised of 
rare gifts of speech, and combines in an unusual degree cogent thinking 
with a most pleasing and attractive delivery. He is even more popular 
as a pastor. His charming personality wins for him an easy entrance into 
the hearts and homes of his people, and his loyal and sincere interest in 
all that concerns them makes for him an abiding place in their affections. 
Xo man was ever more beloved by his people than is Dr. Landrum. But 
he not only fills well his place as pastor and preacher, but in every com- 
munity where he dwells he is the model citizen, ever ready to take up his 
part of the burdens and assume his full share of the responsibilities of 
citizenship, and where he dwells no good cause ever lacks for wise and 
faithful leadership." •* 

(209) 




LL. 



CONSECRATED CHILDHOOD. 211 



XYII 
CONSECRATED CHILDHOOD 



By William Waerex Landrum, D. D., 
Georgia 
"Wist ye not that I should be in my Father's house." — Luke 2: 49. 

DO 3^011 know, my friends, that these are the first recorded words 
of the Lord Jesus? How touching in their simplicity and 
how profound in their spiritual depth! And these words came 
from a boy only twelve years old. 

At that age his parents took Jesus with them to the great feast 
of the Passover. The age of twelve years was a critical time for a 
Jewish boy. It was the age, according to Jewish legend, when 
Moses left the house of Pharaoh^s daughter; when Samuel heard 
the voice which summoned him to the office of prophet ; when Solo- 
mon gave the judgment VA'hich first revealed his wisdom; when 
Josiah first dreamed of his great reform. At this age every boy 
was obliged, by the injunction of the rabbis and the custom of the 
nation, to learn a trade for his own support; at this age he so far 
gained freedom from parental authority that they could no longer 
sell him as a slave ; at this age he became what was called "a, son of 
the Lord," and was confirmed as a regular member of the congre- 
gation. 

Jesus as a boy in Jerusalem catches his first glimpse of the 
great outer world. Jerusalem is distant from Xazareth about 
eighty miles, and the journey from the one to the other required a 
little m.ore than three davs. Crowds bv the thousands, and even 



212 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

tens of thousands, flocked to the Passover. The city could not ac- 
commodate them. I^umbers of pilgrims dwelt in temporary booths 
made of mats and wicker work and interwoven leaves. The scene at 
the Passover was not unlike the old-fashioned Southern "camp- 
meeting" which many of us remember. The feast lasted a week; it 
was a glorious revival v/eek. When the meeting "broke up/' as we 
say, the vast caravan, with their mules and horses and asses and 
camels, would clear away their "tents" and start on the homeward 
journey. It was a glad time. The road was enlivened by mirth and 
music. There they move along, the veiled women and the stately 
old men mounted, while the young men with long staffs in their 
liands lead along the beasts of burden. The boys and girls some- 
times walk and play by the side of their parents, and sometimes, 
when tired, get a lift on the horse or mule. The slow travel was 
cheered by the sound of drums and timbrels. The pauses at noon 
were picnics by the springing well or flowing stream. When Joseph 
and Mary moved away from the city with the crowd the boy Jesus, 
absorbed in new and elevating emotions, remained behind. A day 
went by before they discovered his loss. The next, in alarm and 
anguish, they retrace their steps. They went everywhere hunting 
for the missing boy, and found him at last in the temple talking 
to a group of old ministers on the kingdom of God. Mary his 
mother reproached him : "My child, why doth thou treat us thus ? 
See thy father and I were seeking thee with aching hearts." And 
then followed his answer, one of calm, respectful dignity : "Did ye 
not know that I must be in my Father's house ?" 

Memorable words those ! Do j^ou know that right then and there 
gleamed forth four revelations? There in the temple of Jehovah 
was made a revelation of God to the boy, a revelation of the boy to 
himself, a revelation of the boy to the ministers, and a revelation of 
the boy to his mother. 

In the first revelation God was disclosed to the boy. On his first 
visit to the temple of God, I say, Jesus caught his first sufficient 
view of God. I do not mean it was the first time Jesus worshipped 
Jehovah. In the home of Joseph there was a family altar, as in 
every pious Jewish home. In that home private prayer was the 



COXSECRATED CHILDHOOD. 21.3 

privilege and duty of every member of the family morning, noon, 
and evening. I do not mean that it was the first time Jesn5 ''went 
to church,'^ as we should say. Without doubt he regularly attended 
the worship of the svnagogue at Xazareth. Eabbis believed children 
as young as five years of age should not only participate in divine 
service, but be able to read the law. TN'hat I mean to say is this : 
Here in Jerusalem, when only twelve years of age, the boy Jesus 
c^me to a personal realization of the character of God and of the 
claims which God had upon him. As it was springtime in the city, 
with buds bursting and flowers blooming everwhere, so there was 
springtime in the garden of Jesus' heart. The seeds of truth 
dropped into it in infancy and watered with tears of mother love, 
and warmed with the sunsliine of God's spirit, now come up and 
come out to view in freshness and beauty. Then, for the first time, 
so far as we are informed by the Word, the soul of the boy awoke to 
see and know God as he is known only to pure and loving hearts. 

God revealed himself to Jesus in the temple as ^'the Father." The 
temple became to Jesus ''My Fathers house." 

If you will study God's disclosures of himself to the ancient 
prophet* you will find it was gradual. The Old Testament shows 
what is called a progressive development of the doctrine of God. 
God is first seen as the all-powerful. God is first discovered by a 
child as the maker of the universe, shining in the sun, roaring in 
the storm, the sea and thunder, and whirling the world onward in 
its revolutions. God is next seen by the child as "all- justice." He 
is the embodiment of law. God commands us to do certam things 
and not to do certain other things ; he rewards obedience and pun- 
ishes disobedience. Then God appears to the child as **all-holiness." 
He requires a clean heart: he looks witliin as weU as without; he 
judges disposition as well as conduct. All along there is theological 
progress, but this is about as near as God ever gets to an unsaved 
soul. When God is known merely as the all-powerful, aU-just, all- 
holy one, the feeling excited are not those of the saved. What can 
they be but dread, awe, fear, or even repulsion and hatred ? There 
must be a fuller manifestation of the divine character. The aU- 
loving must appear. It is only when God comes to us as love or 



214 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

sustaining to our sonls the same relationship that our earthly 
fathers sustain to onr bodies that he is fully revealed and we learn 
to love and trust him. In other words, though God had always been 
the boy's Father in fact, he now becomes such in the boy's feeling. 
The experience of the child Christ was not wholly unlike what in 
our sinful children is called regeneration. God becomes the per- 
sonal God of a boy or girl only twelve years old when that young 
heart sees him and knows him as a father. To grasp God's father- 
hood as that doctrine is taught in the Scriptures is to be a new-born 
soul. Whenever one of you, however long enslaved by sin, comes 
to see that God's character is love, that God's commands are given 
in love, that God's threats are made in love, that God's service is to 
be discharged in love, you have received the Holy Spirit. Forever 
afterwards Jehovah is a Father no more to be hated, feared, dis- 
trusted, disobeyed, fled from, but the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, to whom you give the mind's profoundest reverence 
and the heart's deepest and sincerest affection and the life's loyalty. 
A second revelation in the temple was that of the boy Jesus to 
himself. In the temple Jesus found his Father, but what was 
equally important, he found himself. Do you not know that this 
discovery of one's self is a great crisis in one's history ? Eemember 
the prodigal — "When he came to himself he said. How many hired 
servants of my father's house have bread enough and to spare, and 
I perish with hunger ?" When he came to himself then he resolved 
to come to his father. "I will arise and go to my father." You may 
remind me that the prodigal was a sinner, and that he found him- 
self as only a sinner can find himself, debased, wretched, far from 
God, on the road to endless ruin. He found his need of forgiveness, 
of cleansing, of love, home, and happiness. Those needs forced him 
to his father. And that is true. But there is self -disco very by even 
those who are not so grossly wicked. There is a discovery of duty 
to God growing out of our relation to God as son to a father. Be- 
fore we know God, whether we have been moral or immoral, we do 
not know ourselves. After we know God we begin to know our- 
selves. Before Jesus' visit to the temple he did not fully compre- 
hend God, and for that reason he did not fully compreliend what 



CONSECRATED CillLDHOOD. 215 

God would have him do. So before conversion, before a satisfying 
view of God^s fatherhood bursts upon the soul, no soul can know its 
life work and life responsibility. 

Self-discovery is needed by our boys and girls. When yon look 
into the face of yonr bright boy and ask him, "My son, wliat are 
yon going to be when you are old enough to work for yourself?'', 
you are telling him to study himself. You say, in eSect, turn your 
eyes inward ; tell me what sort of a nature you have ; examine what 
are your inclinations, what you wish to do ; examine your abilities, 
what you think 3^ou will be able to do ; examine your opportunities, 
what you think will open to you as a life work. You are trying to 
get the boy or girl to find himself or herself. And that is most im- 
portant parental duty. Let me tell you, however, that the boy or 
girl will never find himself till he has first found God. Mary and 
Joseph took their boy to the temple of God, and there Jesus found 
God. Having found God, Jesus found himself, and having found 
himself he found his life work. "I must be in my Father's house or 
I must be about my Father's business." Henceforth Jesus was to be 
a minister of God, preaching the gospel of salvation to a lost world. 
Manifestly all our boys and girls arenot to be ordained preachers. 
There are already too many preachers. All honorable callings are 
open to our children. In any one of them they can be ministers for 
God. The truth I wish to emphasize is that conversion is self-reve- 
lation. Conversion opens the boy's e3^es or the girl's eyes to see that 
they are close kin to God, that they are somebody, and good has 
something in God's esteem. Conversion fills the youth with uplift- 
ing, expanding, ennobling convictions. A new heart discovers a new 
world. Whenever one of our children can say, "Through the merits 
of Christ I am a child of God ; however young and weak I may be, I 
am made in his image ; I can know his character ; I can do his will ; 
I can be his instrument for accomplishing good in the world ; I can 
glorify him and bless my fellow-men," that child will never be a 
failure. Fame he may not acquire, nor wealth, nor high position, 
nor wide influence, but he will be a success. He is forever lifted up 
above any calling that is dishonorable, corrupting, vicious. Ever 
afterwards the youth or maiden exclaims : "I have a mission ; I 
have a duty." Such an one finds himself and the place he was made 



216 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

for in the world. Life has a plan and a purpose. He sings in shop 
or store, or factory or office : "I am what God made me ; I am where 
God placed me ; I can do all things through Christ, which strength- 
eneth me." 

The boy in the temple was a revelation to the old ministers as he 
sat among them asking and answering questions. ^^And all that 
heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." 
Great men were grouped about the boy. Among those doctors may 
have been the great Hillel, white with the snows of well-nigh one 
hundred years, whom the Jews almost reverenced as a second Moses ; 
and his grandson, the refined and liberal Gamaliel, at whose feet 
Paul was trained; and Shammai, whose word was law to many; 
and Annas, Christ's future judge ; and the wealthy Joseph of Ara- 
mathea; and the timid but earnest Nicodemus. How these men 
were charmed and astonished at the glorious and noble-hearted boy. 
There he sat in the radiant beauty of innocent childhood. He was 
prematurely thoughtful. Though he had never learned in the 
schools of the rabbis, yet he showed a marvellous wisdom and a deep 
knowledge of things divine. God had appeared to him and spoke 
through him. 

Now, when Christ began to preach the gospel of the kingdom, 
you remember, he began to glorify childhood. Judaism was chiefly 
an old folks' religion. Christianity was to be a young folks' re- 
ligion. Age and wisdom were most highly honored in the old dis- 
pensation. Truth and love were most highly exalted in the new dis- 
pensation. No feature in Christ's wonderful reformation was more 
novel and surprising than his elevation of the child to the topmost 
place in importance and value. Christianity was and is a sanctified 
childhood. Who is the typical saint in Christ's teaching ? Not the 
Roman soldier; his characteristics are courage, insensibility, en- 
durance ; but these are not fundamental Christian virtues. Not the 
Greek philosopher ; his marks were learning, grace, quickness of in- 
tellect. Not the Jewish sage ; he exhibited wisdom, solemnity, cau- 
tion. It is the child whom Christ makes the symbol of pure re- 
ligion; it is the child's graces of faith, hope, and love. All this 
surprised the great people of that age. To this day God's people are 
skeptical as to the possibilities of religion in a child. It was eigh- 



CONSECRATED CHILDHOOD. 217 

teen hundred years after Christ before the Sunday school was 
founded. It has been within the memory of men now in this con- 
gregation that the ministry first sought the conversion of boys and 
girls. Our churches, led by the old doctors, who looked upon re- 
ligion as the exclusive possession of maturity and old age, did not 
encourage preaching to boys and girls; did not look for their con- 
version; did not readily accept the evidences of their conversion; 
did not encourage them to publicly declare their conversion and 
unite with the church. Are we much wiser ? Let a series of special 
meetings begin and God's people become aroused to seek and save 
the lost. The minister and his thoughtful co-workers begin to look 
about them for objects of special prayer. Whom are they most 
likely to select ? ^'Well," they say, '^^there is that father over yonder 
who is not a Christian ; that mother over there ; those regular mem- 
bers of the congregation who have worshipped with us for years. ^^ 
We say: "Look yonder at that strong, prosperous business man; 
that influential professional man; that society leader among the 
women of the community. We must exhort them, entreat them, 
bring them to Christ and salvation." And so we go to work on these 
people. By and by the time of disclosure comes. God's spirit has 
been working too, but not on the fathers and mothers and great 
folks, but on the children. The invitation is given for those who 
love Christ to confess him, and up from the distant pew comes a 
bright-eyed boy or girl. How surprised everybody is. The minister 
even — shame on him — did not expect the little ones. And when he 
questions the boy, though only twelve years old, it may be, his won- 
der grows that he has been so soundly and genuinely brought to 
know and love God. How constantly the old leaders in the church 
wake up to discover that God is using the weak things of this world 
to confound the mighty ; that God is passing by the old and influen- 
tial to gather to himself the young and unknown. 

One more temple revelation. The boy was a revelation to his 
parents. Mary was astonished. Mary the mother of Jesus was un- 
prepared for the spectacle. Mary, though she knew of his miracu- 
lous birth ; Mary, who had sung in rapture the praises of the infant 
Saviour ; Mary, who had been repeatedly informed as to the future 
of her boy, is astonished. More, she is displeased at Christ's preco- 



218 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

cioiis piety. The discovery that Jesus is now old enough to call God 
his Father and the temple his Father's house and God's worship his 
own business has all the force of shock. "Wist ye not that I must be 
in my Father's house and about my Father's business?" It was a 
stunning question. Yes, the old man who had protected his infancy 
and the mother who had borne him understood him not. There was 
a deep spiritual meaning in those quiet words. Strange and mourn- 
ful commentary on the first recorded utterance of the youthful 
Saviour that it should be misunderstood by those who were nearest 
and dearest to him. 

Godly people in this church are not always prepared for the con- 
version of their children. A bombshell flung into the home would 
create hardly more surprise or excitement than the spiritual awak- 
ening of a child. What a study is the face of the parents when the 
little one tremblingly says : "Mother, I love Jesus, and I want to 
obey him and serve him all the days of my life." I tell you it is a 
critical time. Ah, how many of us have to admit that it was pre- 
cisely so in our homes when our children turned to the Lord. Of 
course, we longed some day to see our children Christians. Yes, we 
gave them to the Lord when they were born, for right heartily do 
we believe in infant dedication, though in Christ's name we oppose 
infant baptism. We had been praying for them ever since. We 
had taught them to pray and to study God's Word and to frequent 
God's house. And yet, notwithstanding all this, when the solemn 
but glad truth broke upon us that our boy or our girl is converted 
to Christ we were startled. We were slow to believe any change had 
taken place in their hearts. We feared at first to encourage them. 
We felt condemned that we had done so little to help them to the 
Saviour. We trembled lest they might be mistaken. And then if 
we were not ourselves converted in childhood we were all the more 
unwilling to believe that they might be. At last, we followed the 
example of Mary — we submitted to God's way. Who can stand 
against God? "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
elect?" It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? 
If God has called our children and they have heard him, we hug 
them to our hearts and, kissing their heads, we whisper with our 
tears : "It is all right, my son, my daughter ; do as you believe God 



CONSECRATED CHILDHOOD. 219 

would have von do. He has a claim on you higher and holier than 
mine." 

Fathers and mothers, let us never be astonished when our chil- 
dren are converted. It is our Father^s way, and his way is best. 
Let us not rebuke them when they tell us that they must be in their 
Father's house. Rather let us say: "My son, my daughter, my 
prayer is that I may begin my Christian life afresh with you to- 
day. Pray now for me as I have so often prayed for you, and we 
shall walk to heaven in each other's company." 



220 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XVIII 
THE SEA NO MOEE 



By Eev. Samuel Moore Provence^ M. A., 

Florida 

"And tbe sea is no more." — Rev. 21 : 1. 

THE Apostle Paul wrote that he was once caught up into the 
third heaven, where he saw and heard things which he was 
not permitted to reveal. Some hints of the ineffable glory are all 
we have of that vision. Heaven was very real to the apostle after 
that, but he never attempted to describe it. The resurrection body, 
he said, is a "spiritual body," "raised in power" and "incorrupti- 
ble," but there is no answer to our further questions. The desire to 
go and enter upon the glorious life he had seen was always present 
with him, but what that life is like he never told. It may have been 
that his didactic and logical and argumentative style of writing was 
unsuited for such a description. It may have been that, after all, 
he thought it more important to show the way to it. To a later 
writer, who possessed singularly fitting qualifications for such a 
work, it was given to set forth as fully as may be done in human 
speech the life in heaven. "That disciple whom Jesus loved" with 
a peculiar tenderness, and who of all those associated with him in 
his earthly ministry caught most thoroughly the divine Master's 
spirit, was one of those rarely endowed, finely fibred, magnetic men 
whose life is on the highest plane of human existence. Poetic by 
nature, scholarly and discriminating by culture, he needed only the 
fullness of the Holy Spirit to make him of all men the most com- 
pletely equipped for the splendid task assigned him. Through him 
"the last word" of the divine revelation is spoken. He does not 
describe literally. That were impossible. He useS the language of 
symbols. The numbers, the forms, the material things that kindle 
to the utmost the imagination of all that is mighty and splendid 




Um. l^iiEL i. ^^©WECflEL i. L 



SA]\mEL MOORE PROVENCE was born in Jefferson county, Tenn., Au- 
gust 1, 1844. He is of English blood on his mother's side and of French 
and Scotch- Irish on his father's side.- He professed conversion in a revival 
at Mansfield's Gap Church, in his native county, at the age of eleven years, 
and about a year thereafter was baptized in the French Broad river at Dan- 
dridge, where his parents then lived, by Rev. Joseph Manning, pastor of the 
Baptist Church at that place. He was sent to Mossy Creek (now Carson- 
Xewman) College in 1856 and again in 1860. He returned home in a few 
months on account of the political excitement of the times, and afterward 
enlisted in a company of cavalry raised by Captain ISTeff for the Confederate 
army, and was in active service with Forrest, Wheeler, and other generals 
till the close of the war. He was twice wounded in the battle of Piedmont, 
Va., June 5, 1864. In 186.7 he entered Richmond College, where he studied 
four and a half years, taking the degree of Master of Arts. From there he 
went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he spent three 
years. In the midst of his college course he found himself obliged to sus- 
pend his work and teach for a year or two in order to meet his expenses. 
During this interval he married Miss Indie Watkins, of Richmond, Va., and 
it was due largely to her encouragement and helpfulness that he returned 
to college and completed his course in the seminary. In 1888 Mr. Provence 
was driven to Florida by a rheumatic trouble which resulted from exposure 
in the army. In that genial climate he has found great relief. For some 
years he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Tallahassee. He has re- 
cently resigned, and is now associate editor of the Alabama Baptist, pub- 
lished at Montgomery. His son, Rev. Herbert W. Provence, ~SL A., is pastor 
of a prominent Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. 
(222) 



THE SEA XO MOEE. 2-23 

and endiiring, he employs to portray as far as may be the glory of 
heaven. There has taken place a "universal regeneration. There is 
"a new heaven and a new earth, and the sea is no more." To my 
childish fancy these -unparalleled symbolic descriptions seemed real. 
Long after I became a man it occurred to me to ask why heaven 
needed no sea. 

By "sea" is meant, no doubt, the entire water surface of the globe. 
When a child first learns that this is rather more than three-fonrths 
of the whole globe surface, he wonders at what he supposes to be a 
waste of room. Later on he learns that this mighty spread of evapo- 
rating surface is what preserves the land from barrenness, and that 
in a very real sense all physical life depends upon the sea. Here is 
a clew, then, to the meaning of the text. There will be no longer 
any need for the conditions of physical life. Seasons and climates 
and water and air and heat and cold will be no more. The condi- 
tions of life are all changed, and the things of which the sea has 
been taken as emblematic in all great literatures will also be done 
away. We may gain some spiritual refreshing if we further con- 
sider some of these. 

1. The Sea is an Emblem of Uncertainty. 

Why do we speak of human life as a voyage ? Is it not because of 
its uncertaint}^ ? How helpless we are in the storm and stress of 
ever-changing circumstance ! What the night or the morning may 
bring is as far beyond our ken as the secrets of eternity. Life on the 
sea is after all perhaps no more uncertain than on the land. It is 
true that there are dangers which defy the ship-builders' skill, but 
in spite of these the sea is a great highway of travel and commerce 
and a field of industry practically boundless. It is not simply that 
unseen danger lurks in every path, whether on land or sea, but un- 
certainty attaches to all our pursuits. We spread our sails and woo 
the breezes of prosperity\ We try to make things sure. We calcu- 
late against the risks and eliminate them as far as possible, but the 
day of disaster proves that we sailed our ships upon "uncharted'^ 
rocks. Xo man's experience makes us wise, because no man lives by 
rule. We strain our dim and uncertain vision in the effort to hit 
upon the things that are sure and steadfast, only to find our minds 
bewildered and our wisdom mocked. We measure ourselves bv each 



224 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

other and find surcease of self-abasement in conventionality and 
custom, but each one of us carries in his own heart an unexplored 
sea. We pass our puny judgments upon each other in dense and 
utter ignorance of what lies beneath the storm-swept surface of life. 
We see in a glass darkly and we know only in part, and the little 
that we see and know is barely enough for a working basis. We are 
driven by forces which we are powerless to resist, and we know that 
"it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.'' Parts of a vast 
and boundless whole, we find our place and our work little by little, 
and only the final event can show us the plan of our life. 

This sea of uncertainty hastens to its final ebb whence it will re- 
turn no more. We shall know. No more shall we waste and wear in 
pursuits for which we have no fitness. No longer shall we be the 
sport of winds and tides. Never again shall we be compelled to walk 
blindfold through earth's inextricable maze. In that fair and 
radiant dawn which shall usher in the new heaven and the new earth 
light will come which will solve all our problems, answer all our 
questions and show us the plan of the universe. 

2. The Sea is the Emblem of Mystery. 

"Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of 
his dwelling-place? Behold he spreadeth his light upon it and 
covereth the bottom of the sea." Some of the most commonly ob- 
served phenomena of the sea are still subjects of conjecture. What 
is the origin of the tides? What starts the sea's currents? What 
keeps the deep sea almost at the freezing point? What purpose is 
served by the strange, low forms of life, half animal, half vegetable, 
with which the sea abounds? Who has not felt, as he looked far 
over its trackless waste and listened to its mighty roar, how puny is 
man, how great that God who holdeth the sea in the hollow of his 
hand and knoweth all the mysteries of its "dark, unfathomed 
caves" ? 

A greater mystery is life. Who shall answer for us the question. 
What is life? Who shall gather up for us the apparently tangled 
and broken strands in this strange and many-figured web, and bring 
out of it "the beauty of the Lord our God" ? How shall we connect 
onr mistakes, our follies, our sins, our deceitful and desperately 
wicked human hearts, as well as our unspeakable longing toward 



THE SEA NO MOKE. 225 

God, and our consecration to him, our joy in his service, and our 
measureless aspirations, with that increasing divine purpose which 
runs through the countless ages ? Let every mouth be dumb before 
that mighty, unapproachable mystery, the divine providence, high 
as the boundless heavens, deep as the fathomless hell. Why should 
we return to our childhood and amuse ourselves by asking unan- 
swerable questions ? 

Mysterv^ is no menace to faith. If it were, faith would be unthink- 
able. For mystery is everywhere — in our breath, in our food, in our 
drink, in every microscopic cell of our physical frame, as well as in 
all that nebulous realm we cover with the word metaphysics. Sol- 
vents for these mysteries we do not need for the purposes of this life. 
They do not interfere with our activities. But in that mighty 
spiritual field of the limitless future, where our imshackled and dis- 
ciplined powers shall have ample scope, we may find these solvents 
when the books are opened, and we may then understand "all mys- 
teries and all knowledge." Things wMch are far too wonderful for 
us now, may seem simple enough in the splendid maturity of 
spiritual and intellectual power to which we shall there attain. Per- 
haps we shall see through even the awful mystery of sin. Perhaps 
we shall understand the mission of the "dull, predestinated fool," 
and of him who in his heart says there is no God. , Perhaps we shall 
know why the wicked have not ceased from troubling, and how God 
has answered Satan's accusations of the saints. Oh, fathers and 
brothers, life is worth living with a possibility like that before it! 
Speed on, thou glorious day, when the first heaven and the first 
earth shall have passed awa}^ and with them this "great and wide 
sea" of mystery ! In that day, when the earth and the sea shall give 
up their dead, earth and sea and sk}' shall yield up their secrets. 
We shall know whether or not we have been living all our days in 
sight of heaven. In that sunless, nightless "city," lighted by the 
glory of God and open forevermore, we shall see him of whom 
Moses and the prophets wrote. "We shall see him as he is." And 
as we gaze with undimmed and rapturous vision upon his glorified 
face, we, too, shall be changed ^^y the same image from glory to 
glory," until we become like him. 

3. The Sea is an Emblem of Eestlessness. 



226 TPIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Have you ever stood and watched the beating of the waves and 
wished that they would be still for at least a little while? You 
looked upon the sea and thought how restless it is. But the surface 
motion is only a part of its restlessness. Wonderful systems of cur- 
rents and drifts have been discovered extending throughout the 
whole, and involving apparently the deepest as well as the shallowest 
water. You m^ay pick up on the beach a shell from some great 
depth, or a bit of wood or a nut that has floated across the world. 
The mighty floods are in unceasing motion, and this is necessary 
for the purposes that the sea fulfills. And so its seething, surging, 
tireless motion is a fit emblem of human life. You may see this in 
miniature at any busy street corner. Let us stand for a moment and 
watch the stream go by. How eagerly men are pursuing the fleeing 
phantom of wealth or pleasure or worldly fame, urged on by the 
hidden fires of ambition or the insatiable greed of appetite. Lashed 
into a furious race by the whips of impatience, they sometimes for- 
get to be brothers and trample each other down, and sometim.es in 
their fierce hunger they barter the high birthright of their own 
souls for a miserable mess of pottage. Or let us ascend some height 
and get a wider view. Everywhere the new commercialism is in the 
saddle, booted and spurred to override all opposition. Everywhere 
the evangel of a world-wide human brotherhood and the plea for 
righteousness between man and man and between nation and nation 
lift their heaven-sent protest against iniquity. It is a fight to the 
finish, the issue of which is sure because God is in heaven. Take 
another view and contemplate the toiling millions of earth. Let us 
not think of this toil as hardship, but as a boundless benefit to them- 
selves and to the world's progress. Nevertheless, rest is sweet. And, 
thank God, rest is long. Toil and sorrow are only for a night. The 
morning of an endless day will bring rest and joy, when God shall 
throw 

" 'Round our incompleteness his completeness, 
'Round our restlessness his rest." 

Oh, for the grace of patience ! Oh, for the faith that can be strong 
though it hear no voice, though it see no sign ! "We who believe are 
entering into rest" already. Each day brings its own lesson in the 



THE SEA XO MORE. 227 

divine art of taking things as God sends them, and yet we learn 
slowly. Our moments on the mount of transfiguration are all too 
few and too quickly gone, and they leave us in the valley struggling 
with our old limitations. A sudden and rapturous glimpse of the 
Holy of Holies startles us for a moment with a vision of glory, and 
leaves us face to face with the tempter we know so well. The strain 
of our hallelujahs is broken by the wail, How long, Lord, how 
long ? Like "those who go down to the sea in ships," we mount up 
to the heavens and we go do^m into the abysses. But know thou, 
tempest-driven mariner, that every wave of this tumultuous sea 
helps thee to the land whither thou goest — 

"A land npon whose bhssfnl shore 
There rests no shadow, falls no stain ; 
There those who meet shall part no more, 
And those long parted meet again." 



228 TPIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT, 

XIX 
EELIGION AND REFORM 



By George Boardman Eager, D. D., 
Alabama 

"I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness 
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swear- 
ers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and 
the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger, and fear not me, saith the 
Lord of Hosts."— Mai. 3: 5. 

THE great social and civic evils out of which grow the problems 
of reform are not new or peculiar to modern life. Here they 
are rife and rampant in Malachi's day, as in ours. In spite of all 
that may be justly claimed for the progress of the world, the prob- 
lems of reform have changed very little, for the human heart is still 
the same. "As in water face answereth face, so the heart of man to 
man." 

Moreover, they do not exist, nor can they be wisely considered, 
independently. The prophet is true to life when he groups them. 
They are all of a family. They are interwoven in the social tex- 
ture. They are closely twined cords of the one dark rope that binds 
the children of men in bondage to oppression, lust, and wretched- 
ness. The "social evil,'' the oppression of the hireling in his wages, 
the merciless disregard of the rights of the widow and the father- 
less, the combinations to lure the stranger aside and fleece him, the 
great, far-reaching, damning evil of intemperance — ^these are evils 
common to every age and rooted in the common soil of human 
selfishness. They are all traceable in the last analysis to irreligion,to 
practical infidelity. "I will bear swift witness against them because 
they fear not me, saith the Lord of Hosts." 

Take the oppressions and retaliations that grow out of the rela- 
tions of capital and labor, employer and employee. What are they 
at last but the flint of selfishness in the employer striking the rock 
of selfishness in the employee and "bringing fire" in what are rightly 




gmm^ i. iMi^, i. i. 



GEORGE BOARDMAN EAGER was born at Rodney, Miss., February 22, 
1847. His father, Rev. Eleazer C. Eager, a native of Vermont arid a full 
graduate of Colgate University, N. Y., in the collegiate and theological de- 
partments, in 1842 moved South and became one of the pioneer Baptist 
preachers of Mississippi. The eldest son, William Carey Eager, died while 
serving as a soldier in Lee's army. George Boardman also saw service as a 
boy soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia during the last year of the 
war. Dr. B. F. Eager, a distinguished physician of Kentucky, was the third 
son. Then came Rev. John H. Eager, D. D., who labored with distinction 
for seventeen years as a missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention to 
Italy. Prof. P. H. Eager, the fifth son, is now filling the chair of English 
in Mississippi College. Of two daughters, the elder is the wife of Rev. I. P. 
Trotter, of Kentucky, while the younger is the helpmeet of Rev. J. M. Joiner, 
of Tennessee. George Boardman, after the war between the States, had to 
work hard for an education. He was graduated from Mississippi College in 
1871, with the first honons of his class, and spent the greater part of four 
years in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, then located in Green- 
ville, S. C. In 1876 Mr. Eager became pastor in Lexington, Va. From there 
he was called to the First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tenn., entering 
upon his work January 1, 1879. On February 20th of the same year Dr. 
Eager w^as married to Miss Annie E. Coorpender, of Jackson, Miss., who- 
graduated in 1871 from Central Female Institute, Clinton, Miss., with the 
honors of her class. Three sons are the fruit of this union. In the spring 
of 1880 Dr. Eager accepted a call to the pastorate of the St. Francis- Street 
Church of Mobile, Ala., one of the most important fields in the South. Here 
he labored for seven years with gratifying success. In 1887 a change of 
climate was deemed expedient, and Dr. Eager accepted the care of the First 
Baptist Church at Danville, Va. After two years there he became pastor 
of the Parker Memorial Church of Anniston, Ala. During this pastorate 
the membership increased threefold, and a handsome stone church was dedi- 
cated. In 1892 Dr. Eager became pastor of the First Baptist Church of 
Montgomery, Ala., a position of great influence and responsibility, which 
he filled with eminent success until August 1, 1900. Thus it will be seen 
that more than seventeen years of his ministerial life has been spent in 
Alabama; the brethren of that grand old State regard him as peculiarly 
their own. He has held many positions of influence in the denomination. 
In May, 1900, the Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary elected Dr. Eager to be Professor of Biblical Introduction and 
Associate Professor of Practical Theology. He entered upon his duties 
October 1st following. His manly character, ripe wisdom, solid attain- 
ments, and noble ambition w411 make for him a still larger place in the 
hearts of American Baptists. 
(230) 



KELIGION AND EEFOEM.. 231 

called "strikes^' — in what often takes the form of riot, arson, and 
pillage ? Is it not the self -same selfishness, too, taking the form of 
lust or greed in the employer, that grinds the face of the poor, that 
begrudges the working girl a living wage, and that, combined with 
ignorance and a weak love of ease or finery in the girl, and false 
social standards in the community, prepares many a poor creature 
for the pitfall of the social evil ? Then the lurking jackals of lust 
stand by, of course, ready to drag her down, and the deadly gravita- 
tion of false social conditions may be trusted to keep her there. 

Take the vice of intemperance, too; how often it is at first the 
refuge of the despondent and the despairing ! How often men and 
women oppressed by poverty, worn out and embittered by unremu- 
nerative toil, and suffering in consequence domestic troubles and dis- 
content, seek selfish surcease in drink! The homeless girl, the 
woman who finds herself a social outcast, and the man forced upon 
the road to tramp for a living, plunge naturally into the drinking 
habit for the relief that the fleeting pleasure brings, or as the longed- 
for lethe of forgetfulness. The saloon will never be abolished until 
the oppression and inequalities that maintain it, and the greedy sel- 
fishness that thrives by it, are abolished. 

What, then, is the relation of religion to these problems of re- 
form ? 

Let us not lose ourselves in abstractions, but seek for practical 
answers. 

It would be no mean help toward arriving at a solution of the 
problem to know how the prophets of old dealt with such ques- 
tions — in what spirit and by what methods they faced and tried to 
cope with the social evils of their day. 

Surely they do not ignore them. They do not minimize them. 
They do not deal with them as matters apart from religion. They 
refer often and boldly to the oppression of the poor by the rich, and 
always with outspoken denunciation of it. The painted harlot ap- 
pears in their pictorial sermons, not so much for pity as for repro- 
bation. A false balance they denounce as among the things that 
God despises. And their words in regard to the great monster evil 
of intemperance are the fittest words that we can find to-day to ex- 
press the divine disapproval of this soul- destroying vice. 



233 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

But note the spirit and method in which they do this. By clear 
ringing enunciation of eternal principles, by lifting the veil from 
the face of God and pointing men to his eternal hatred of injus- 
tice, cruelty, and selfishness, they make themselves felt as messen- 
gers of the Eternal whose lips have been touched with coals 
from off the altar of God, who can in no wise condone or enter into 
complicity with evil. They were not merely ^^a voice crying in the 
wilderness" — they went with their message into the crowded marts 
of men. With plain words, as with an incisive knife, they separate 
between the entangling veil of expediency and eternal right, be- 
tween human selfishness and the holy will of God. They are 
prophets, not /ore-tellers, but /or^/i-tellers ; they speak for God, in 
his very person, as it were. ''I will come near to you in judgment. 
/ will be a swift witness against you, because ye fear not me, saith 
the Lord of Hosts." 

They were not afraid to speak out in God's name. They feared 
neither the rich nor the powerful, but, swept out and borne on by 
the Spirit of God, they left their retreats and spoke into the very 
beards of men, into the teeth of the tyrants and oppressors of the 
poor, uttering the law of the King of kings, and showing what God 
thought of this or that, with no uncertain sound. They penetrated 
the veil ; they trained their eyes in the blaze of the light of the sun 
of righteousness; they placed their ears to the mystic phone that 
connected them with the council chamber of the Eternal, and with 
a trumpet voice sounded the messages which they received to the 
world. 

But they did not adopt worldly ideals or stoop to worldly 
methods. They joined no political parties. They neither took nor 
offered bribes. They avoided "entangling alliances." They did 
not permit themselves to be dwarfed into political partisans, to 
shout party watchwords and use political machinery for party ends. 
An infinitely higher wisdom was theirs — to bring the eternal prin- 
ciples of truth and right down into human affairs, to show the in- 
stability of riches, the unrighteousness of injustice, the need of 
humanity in rich and poor alike, the dawning reality of the eternal 
life. 

With clear moral insight, the prophet and "seer" looked into the 



EELIGIOX AXD REFOEl!:. -233 

heart of things — he discerned the eternal moral issues that underlie 
these surface questions of public administration, capital and labor, 
social immorality, intemperance and the like. ^'Ont of the heart 
are the issues of life." The hnrden of the witness against them 
is that ''they fear not me. saith the Lord of Hosts.*' And the mis- 
sion of the prophet, as he saw it. was to bring the light of truth into 
all the affairs of men. to bring religion home to ^"men's business as 
well as their bosoms/' to awaken the sense of God and make it alive 
for good, that, like a flood of sunshine or a breath of heavenly air, 
he might drive away the noxious vapors of selfishness and lust, and 
purify the heart elements back of all these evils. 

"But we are Christians, not Jews,'*' says one. ''What is our duty 
under the gospel r" ^"TTe must look to the Xew Testament for the 
true solution of these problems.'' "The law was our schoolmaster 
to bring us to Christ.*' What, then, may we leam from Christ's 
own attitude toward these social evils? What did he do? Just 
what the prophets did, only in a larger, deeper, more spiritual way. 

That these problems pressed more heavily on his soul than on 
theirs — more heavily than the cross did on his body — is clear 
enough to every discerning student oi his life. They constituted 
no mean part of the agony of Glethsemane. He knew them and felt 
them as no prophet ever did. Yet he inaugurated no political revo- 
lution. He formed no party. He resorted to no political methods. 
He counseled no strikes. 

In his great inaugural sermon, surrounded as he was, and pressed 
in spirit as he was by the stupendous burden of poverty, oppression, 
selfishness, and vice as he saw it resting upon the multitudes of 
Galilee, he showed them that there was something worse than 
poverty and bondage of the body. He showed how the poor might 
be rich and blessed beneath it all, and how, in spite of the bitterest 
pei^ecutions, they might rejoice. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," 
he said, "'for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "They that take 
the sword shall perish by the sword." Yet he declares, "T come 
not to send peace, but a sword"; but the warfare he waged was 
without clash of material arms or rattle of drum. He taught the 
truth of God, he preached the gospel, as the cure of all these ills. 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 



234 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

these things shall be added unto you/' He enunciated principles 
which are the law of the spiritual world applied to this — supreme 
love to God and equal love to men — principles which, if carried out, 
would rob poverty of its sting, make wealth the almoner of want, 
smooth out all hurtful inequalities, and cause human society itself 
to become one vast mutual benefit association. Then sealing them 
with his blood, he gave to us the supreme motive of love for him- 
self, "w^ho loved us and gave himself for us,'' as our motive for put- 
ting them into practice. Going to the Father, he left us this pre- 
cious legacy, and the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love 
and power. What these principles can do under favorable condi- 
tions in human hearts, and what they may do in human society, 
may be seen in what that first fully organized Christian community 
was and did under that initial anointing and first glow of the Holy 
Spirit, when the disciples shared all things equally with each other ; 
and under its after-glow, too, when Paul gladly left his cherished 
missionary labors to become the bearer of Gentile gifts to the poor 
saints at Jerusalem. 

We are often tempted to cry, "How long, Lord !" How slowly 
the leaven works! How slight the change wrought so far by the 
Spirit in the human heart ! Is He really at work ? Is He driving 
out selfishness and lust and oppression ? 

Let us not lose heart or faith ! It is ours still to place the leaven 
in the lump, to introduce these principles of the other world into 
this, and to depend upon the Holy Spirit to effect the radical, far- 
reaching changes which will alone transform present social condi- 
tions into world-wide millennial blessedness. Standing on groimd 
where Jesus and the apostles and the prophets stood, we may be 
sure that the atmosphere of the other life brought down into this 
is the only oxygen that will make pure tlie fetid air of this, but that 
that will do it. We may bear witness against all these evils in the 
name of the Lord of Hosts, remembering his gracious words : "For 
I am the Lord. I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not 
consumed." 

"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, 
and lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 



JOHX LIPSCOMB JOHXSOX was born in Spotsylvania county, Va. His 
father, Lewis Jolmson^ was the son of Xancy Caistle and Jonathan Johnson, 
grandson of Mary Lewis and Alexander Johnson, and of Mildred Eoane and 
John Castle. His mother, Jane Dabney, was the daughter of Judith Day 
and Hon. John Lipscomb, granddaughter of Amelia Harris and John Day, 
and of Thomas Lipscomb, who came from England. Conan Doyle, in his 
White Company, describes the blue bloods of England as displaying in the 
Spanish campaign the national emblem, and along with it their respectiye 
coats of arms, the Lipscombs showing the device of a icolf and a dagger. 
Their kinsmen who came to America doubtless brought with them the wolf, 
but, though well represented in our early wars, they seem to have preferred 
the pruning-hook to the dagger. Mr. Johnson was educated at the Uniyer- 
sity of Virginia, graduating in 1859. The next year he was ordained at 
Charlottesville, and shortly afterwards was married to Julia Anna, daugh- 
ter of Amelia Eogers and Thomas Dallam Toy, of Xorfolk. He was Pro- 
fessor of English in Hollins Institute, chaplain in the Confederate army, 
pastor of the Court-Street Church, Portsmouth, and of the Freemason- 
Street Church, Xorfolk; Profesisor of English in All>emarle Female Insti- 
tute, Principal Roanoke Female College, and Secretary Virginia Baptist 
General Association. In 1873 he removed to Mississippi, and for sixteen 
years occupied the chair of English in the State L'niversity. Three little 
Virginians — Julia Toy, John Lipscomb, and Crawford Toy — a<?companied 
him; these were joined later by three little Mississippians — Jessie Rosylind, 
Wortley Valentine, and ]Mary Rawlings. The Virginians graduated at the 
State L'niversity; Jessie at Blue Mountain and Mary Sharpe College; 
Wortley at Franklin Academy, afterwards speeding a year at the Agricul- 
tural College, while ]\Iaiy is now hopefully studying at the Industrial In- 
stitute and College of Mississippi. In 1889 Dr. Johnson became President 
of Mary Sharpe College, and two years later pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, Columbus, Miss. In 1897, having fractured his hip in a fall, he 
resigned his charge, removed to his plantation, and edited the Baptist Lay- 
man, published at Winona. He still resides at Pumell Place and preaches 
regularly. He has been President of the State Mission Board, Vice-President 
of the Baptist State Convention and convention preacher; trustee of Mary 
Sharpe College and of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminaiy; Vice- 
President of the Spelling Pveform Association of America. The University 
of Virginia gave him the degi'ee of B. A.: the Southwestern University 
LL.D. ; the University of Georgia and Mississippi College D. D. He is the 
author of "The Virginia University Memorial," •"Occasional Sermons," 
'•Juniores Tesalutamus,"' and -The Twin Spirits of Cotesworth." 
(235> 




1. 1.. LL 



CHRIST AND RTS ClirRCH. 237 

XX 

CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH* 



By Johx Lipscomb Johxson, D. D.^ LL.D.. 
Mississippi 

"Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might present 
it to hiniself a glorious church." — Eph. 5 : 25, 27. 

THIS is a day of great joy in Aberdeen. Hope, that erewhile 
was an inspiration and a sti-ength, has passed into exultant 
fruition. The Baptists of this city behold in this beautiful 
structure the consummation of that loft}' purpose for which their 
sacrifices and labors and prayers were made, and their hearts are 
therefore full of gladness. All other resident Christians, of what- 
ever name, I am fain to believe, rejoice to-day with their Baptist 
brethren, beholding this new honor raised to their common Lord, 
and congratulate both them and themselves as they contemplate this 
material token of the strengihening of the things that belong to God. 
All citizens, I doubt not, even those without religious convictions, 
are glad when they see this completed triumph of resolution and 
energy and persistent effort, which lends its charm to all the archi- 
tectural ornaments of the city and gives increase to all its values. 
Some of us from abroad are here to offer our congTatulations as the 
representatives of the eighty thousand men and vfomen of Missis- 
sippi who rejoice and are exceeding glad because of what you have 
done. And I believe that He who with sandaled feet for thirty 
years walked this earth, who looked with his sweet face out upon the 
careworn faces of men, and longed to kindle in their hearts a joy 
that would banish their cares, who afterwards gathered all these 
cares into his own heart, and bore them on the cross for us — I be- 
lieve that He looks down upon you to-day from His high place in 
heaven with an interest greater than that which even you feel and a 
joy superior even to your own; 



*Preache<l at the dedication of the First Baptist Church o; Aber.leen, Miss. 



238 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

This thought will suggest to you as a text appropriate to the oc- 
casion and fitting for the service which I am expected to perform, 
the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church at Ephe- 
sus — ''Christ loved the church and gave himself for it ... . that 
he might present it to himself a glorious church f' The structure of 
my discourse is as simple as the text itself, which contains what 
may be called three propositions. Look at the first of these, ''Christ 
loved the church f' and consider with me, first — 

I. THE DIVINE IMPULSE IN HUMAN REDEMPTION 

Some there are who think the glory of God is the prime and con- 
trolling end in the redemption of the human soul. It seems to me 
that this is not true, if we think of God as having his eye fixed upon 
himself, as being impelled by desire, pure and simple, for self- 
aggrandisement. It is too selfish to be divine; it is too purely in- 
tellectual to be true of Him whose name is Love. 

But doubtless it is true if regard be had to the objects of redemp- 
tion and the glory of the Redeemer be thought of as the logical out- 
come of the sacrifice made for the soul. For I believe that to save a 
poor sinner from eternal woe — to save him for love's sake only — is 
the crown and flower of all we can think or know of the divine glory. 

To me it is an unspeakable joy, a delight that abides with me con- 
tinually to feel that God was not content in himself to see us, or any 
of us, lost; to feel that the sacrifice of his Son, whose story yet 
startles the world, was made in response to the longing of the divine 
heart, the yearning of a Father's love for his own suffering, con- 
demned children. If I have rightly interpreted the parable of the 
Prodigal Son, it shows two figures, representing two great yearn- 
ings, one human and one divine — one the lost human soul, wander- 
ing away from God, exhausting its sources of joy, realizing at last 
its forlorn estate, and then reaching out its arms and lifting up its 
cry for restoration to the Father's favor; the other is the Spirit of 
the Father, with eye constantly intent upon all these experiences of 
the wanderer, and at last grasping those outstretched hands and 
rejoicing openly at the recovery of his child. This last figure is 
God and the other is myself and you, a.nd you and every one who 
accepts for himself the atonement which God has made through his 



CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH. 239 

Son. And the devotion of the Divine Heart to as many as have 
received Christ is used in the words of the text to illustrate and 
urge the highest and holiest devotion possible to human heart, used 
to lift up a standard unto which few attain : ''Husbands, love your 
wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." 

It is clear, then, that the Divine Eye was fixed upon us, that the 
Divine Thought was centred upon us, as the objects not merely of a 
supreme need, but of a supreme love as well, and that the sacrifice of 
Christ for the church was a heart sacrifice and not a sacrifice for 
glory. He loved us — Christ loved us — and out of this love for us 
issued the unspeakable gift by which the door of eternal life is 
opened unto us. It is good for us to think of it thus, because as we 
do we shall be more and more rapt into a spirit of perpetual benedic- 
tion unto God. ''We love him because he first loved us.'' 

II. THE OFFERING THAT LOVE MADE 

Passing now from this inspiring thought, that love and not glory 
brought redemption to the world, let us consider, in the second 
division of the text, the offering that Love made. "He gave himself 
for it." First, he loved the church — oh, blessed thought of the 
blessed Christ ! — and for this love, to attain the object for which it 
longed, he gave himself, devoted himself to death to save it. Thus 
we have for our consideration — 

1. An Interior View of What Men Call Sacrifice. 

I pause not at the etymological idea of this word, but seize at once 
upon its central thought. Looking at this, I protest against the 
common view of its meaning, which is simply that of loss; that the 
amount sacrificed is just so much subtracted from the sum total of 
what had otherwise been possessed. And thus it has come to pass 
that there is a widespread reluctance to make sacrifice. 

The true idea is not at all that of loss ; nay, rather is it that of the 
highest gain. For the present, indeed, it may be only loss to him 
who makes it and gain to him for whom it is made. And if we think 
of men as wholly isolated, as utterly unconnected with the results of 
what they do, then a sacrifice is simply a passing of good from one 
person to another — an eternal loss passing into an eternal gain. 

But no man looks thus upon life. Every one feels the thrill of 



240 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT., 

his own vitality in his deeds and in their eJBEects upon others. Every 
one lives in what he does. They who gave their funds to build this 
house live in their gifts ; he and they who erected it live in the build- 
ing, and he who ministers in it shall live in the inspiration his min- 
istry gives to those who worship here. Thus it is that no deed ends 
with the act, no gift with the giving, no sacrifice with the offering. 
Sacrifice is, then, the emptying of one's self by expending his wealth 
and strength for the blessing of others. It is the extradition of one's 
self and the transfer of that self to the interest of others. And the 
more one succeeds in this transfer the more directions it takes and 
the more objects it finds, the more widely and truly does he live who 
makes it. Let me illustrate this: There are parents with meagre 
income and growing family. They may easily expend upon the 
present, for their own comfort or enjoyment, all their daily gains, 
but "for the joy that is set before them" they lay by in store in the 
present that they may have more in the future to expend upon the 
needs of their children. So they live again many times — this saving 
father and this economical mother — in the children whom they have 
been enabled by their sacrifices to help. It is this same spirit that 
has recognized the brotherhood of man and planted other lands be- 
sides our own with asylums, hospitals, open-door schools, and public 
•charities of many sorts. And they who have done these things live 
in all who have been blessed hy them. If the story of the Cross be 
worth telling and worth hearing, if to believe it is the supreme need 
of the human soul, then more than any other man that ever lived, 
perhaps, the Apostle Paul lives now, because in ''labors more abund- 
ant/' ''in weariness and painfulne^s," more than any others of us he 
has published that story. His spirit comes down the ages and makes 
part of our common heritage, and his example of self-sacrificing de- 
votion, of labor and patience and suffering love are an inspiration 
to all generations of believers. 

Now, all these things of which I have spoken, and all others like 
unto them, have their root in the richest stratum of the human 
soul — the heroic element. They are the translation into deeds and 
joys of that great saying, "That which thou sowest is not quickened 
except it die/' 

No one of us can know the ecstacy of the fullness of life until he 



CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH. 241 

knows experimental!}^ the meaning of those words. The mother 
does not reach the outer circle of her possible development until she 
has sacrificed for the child of her bosom ; and, let me say it, the ex- 
treme experience of joy in the human heart is reserved for those 
hours when it suffers what men call sacrifice ! He said, "It is more 
Messed to give than to receive/' and all the world has ever known of 
good has come to it through what men call sacrifice. The highest 
exaltation of the soul toward the divine blessedness has been expe- 
rienced only by those who have made it. If ever you have knovm. 
rapture of spirit, if ever you have climbed the mount of transfigu- 
ration and stood on its top, clad in the livery of heaven and with 
heart in a delirium of joy, you did it when in utter abandonment 
of self you blessed another with a great blessing. And let me say it 
with the deepest reverence, that I believe the Divine Character never 
had its fullest expression or its perfect exposition until God at once 
magnified his law and declared his love to those who had broken it 
by giving his Son as a sacrifice for sin. And the very bloom of the 
Divine Glory was not seen in Christ himself until, to use the words 
of the lamented Tucker, he "took upon him the form of a servant, 
and in this form he washed the feet of the fishermen and afterwards 
gave up his life for you and me, nailed by the hands and feet to a 
cross.'' 

2. The Law of Sacrifice. 

If what I have said be true, sacrifice is an act which has regard to 
the future. It is the doing of that which is expected to give its re- 
turn in after days. It is, therefore, a speculation, or dealing in fu- 
tures. You may not fancy the terms applied to it, but the thought 
is God's, and the terms illustrate my meaning. It is a sort of con- 
tract by which the present seeks to bind the future. And I think I 
am right when I say that this contract has one great law. The re- 
turns must justify the outlay. The gains in the future mu^t he 
greater than the loss in the present. To use the language of the 
market, the income must be greater than the output ; and if in any 
case this law fails, then the sacrifice is an unwise and unjustifiable 
one. It seems hardly necessary to illustrate such a proposition ; still 
it may help some one to get nearer my meaning. A business man 
economizes now to make investments whose returns he expects to 



242 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

pay him in days to come. Countless thousands are invested in 
southern properties now. If the returns are not greater than the 
outlay, then the investment, which is a sacrifice of the present to the 
future, is a failure, and is so accounted. 

He who denies himself enjoyment in the present in order to send 
a youth to school is making a contract with the future from which 
he expects to realize a man with developed powers, trained for large 
undertakings and large usefulness. If instead of a man he gets 
back a dude, an idle spendthrift or drunl^ard, he feels there has been 
a mistake somewhere, and that the whole transaction has been a 
failure. 

The ministry of the land shall be my last illustration. As a class 
of men they are for endowment and culture equal to any other class 
of men in the country. All the high offices of the land were open to 
them — ^the seats of governors, the halls of legislature, the bar, the 
bench, and whatever places besides are to be coveted for honor — all 
these were open to them, and to-day are filled by no nobler men. 
But these men have denied themselves for the sake of others, and 
have lost their lives for the sake of Christ and his gospel, and they 
are looking to the future to find their lives again in the compensa- 
tion which it is to bring them. 

Take, now, the most optimistic view you can of the Bible as an 
uninspired book ; say that it is better to live by it even if there be no 
future life and no judgment; say that its ethics are the highest we 
know; say all that may be said apart from its being a revelation of 
God, and I will say this : If there is no future life, and therefore no 
compensation for the sacrifices made in this life, there is not one of 
them all who would not at this announcement suffer disappointment 
of soul, and feel that life has been a mistake. The truth is, they 
have made a contract with the future, and in it alone they are ex- 
pecting to find a complete justification for the sacrifices they are 
making now. And they will not be disappointed, for the returns 
will justify the outlay. Now, the very thought which inspired and 
yet inspires the ministers of our Lord to a life of sacrifice is a re- 
flection of that which upheld hi7n when he ''gave himself for the 
church/' What else can mean these words: ''For the joy that was 
set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame''? What 



CHRIST AND IIIS CHURCH. 243 

was that joy? Evidently the coming into possession of that church 
which he loved and. for which he gave himself as a ransom. 

With these thoughts before yon, think now for a moment on the 
last subdivision of the text, the issne of Christ's sacrificial death. 

III. THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT 

The sacrifice which He made was the greatest we know of, and the 
results will be correspondingly great, else the atonement is a failure. 
He suffered loss for fhe present ; he laid down the glory which he 
had with the Father; he vacated his high place in the heavens; he 
became a man; he was made subject to the law — ''Though he ivere a 
son, yet learned he obedience hy the things which he suffered, and 
being made perfect, he became the author of salvation unto all those 
that obey him'' — ^by a death of shame on the cross. It was the 
snblimest offering the universe ever beheld — a sacrifice that nature 
would not look upon. But He makes no mistakes, though men may. 
He suffered loss for the present, but by this act he bound the future 
to the present. He entered into contract with the ages to come, and 
with his own warm blood he sealed with them a covenant to justify 
what he had done, so that he may ''see of the travail of his soul and 
be satisfied/' 

But this cannot be unless the returns be greater than the outlay — 
unless the harvest of glory be greater than the seeding of sorrow 
and sacrifice. And if this be so we have assurance that the results 
of the atonement of Christ are in this sense greater than the atone- 
ment itself. But that is the same as saying the gloi-y of the church 
is greater in the eye of Christ than the shame of the cross! If this 
be true, what a marvel awaits our enraptured vision when we shall 
look upon that assemblage of all the ransomed and glorified saints 
whose glory shall compensate Christ for the sufferings of Calvary! 
Before this sublime conception, the vision of Divinity itself, human 
thought stands abashed, but in delighted awe. The imagination, 
which with imperial flight cuts its way through clouds and dark- 
ness and beyond the horizon of the visible, weaves for itself things 
of beauty out of things unseen — the imagination makes its essay, 
and failing to embody this great conception, comes back from its 
excursion on weary wing to find rest in the ark of faith. We can- 



244 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

not realize the glory of that chuTch which shall justify the shame of 
the cross. I bow my head before the cross of Christ. Never 
burden-weighted cross like that which depended from the cross on 
Calvary. Never sorrow filled other heart like the sorrow Jesus felt. 
Never anguish wrested other breast like unto his anguish. Never 
was agony of soul like his agony. Never before did God abandon 
utterly one who loved him supremely and leave him to drink the cup 
of his wrath. Alone he stands in the magnitude of the shame he 
bore; alone in the magnitude of the sacrifice he made — the unique 
wonder of the world. That great deed stands out yet as the very top 
of all sacrifices and the top of all thought. Twenty centuries look 
back to it. and date the passing years to that da}^ when, with hands 
outstretched and nailed to the tree, he felt the spear in his heart 
and cried, "It is finished/' and bowed his head and died for his 
church. 

Before that cross I bow my head, but I lift my eyes before the 
church which He has purchased by His death. I know not what it 
will be for glory, and if I knew I could not tell of it better than by 
saying, He loves it, and as He beholds the results of the travail of 
His soul He is satisfied — His joy is full. 

In that great day when He shall look upon this completed work, 
blessed shall they be who have known the fellowship of suffering 
and toil and sacrifice with Him. Even now you feel, I am sure, the 
thrill of the coming blessedness as you give to Him this beautiful 
temple, the offering of your love, the fruit of your imf altering faith, 
your prolonged patience, your persistent labors. He loved you long 
ago and gave Himself for you ; He loves you yet with a measureless 
love ; and in the hour that shall mark the consummation of His pur- 
pose, when the world shall be His and His head shall be burdened 
with many crowns, you shall still be in His heart. And it is a joy 
to me to-day to believe that He has sent me. His minister and mes- 
senger, to give to you His words of commendation and to leave with 
you His perpetual, loving benediction. 

And now, "unto Him that loveth us and washed us from our sins 
in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
His Father, to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. 
Amen." 



ALBERT GRAHAM MOSELEY, the sixth of seven living sons of B. B. 
Moseley and Rebecca McXeill Moseley, was bom on a farm in Dallas county, 
Ala., March 1, 1869. At the age of fifteen he left the faiTQ to become a clerk 
in a general merchandise store in the neighboring village of Orr^alle. One 
year later he was baptized into the fellowship of Providence Baptist Chui-ch 
by Rev. W. B. Crumpton, now State Secretary of Missions for Alabama. In 
the summer and fall of 1888 young Moseley completed a business course in 
Atlanta, Ga., after which he returned to Orrville and became the junior 
member of the firm of Rogers & Moseley. In January, 1891, he was 
'"liberated" by the Orrville Church, and at once gave up his business life 
and entered Howard College at Binningham, from which he graduated with 
second honors in a class of nineteen in the spring of 1894. As is the custom 
with ministerial students at some of the Southern colleges, his summers 
were spent in teaching and preaching. Immediateley after graduation he 
accepted the care of the Dallas- Avenue Church, Huntsville, Ala., which he 
resigned in the fall of 1895 to enter the Southern Baptist Theological Semi- 
nary at Louis^-ille, Ky. During his stay in the Seminary he was pastor of 
Big Spring Church in Breckenridge county and of the historic old Bryant 
Station Church, near Lexington. He was business manager of the boarding 
hall of the Seminary for two years, and was on the editorial staff of the 
Seminary Magazine at the same time. Mr. Moseley's stay at the Seminary 
extended over nearly four years. The second year he took the degree of 
Bachelor of Theology (Th. B.) and the third year Master of Theology (Th. 
M. ) . During the fourth year he did post-graduate work in Hebrew and 
Greek. In March, 1899, he accepted the care of the St. Charles Avenue 
Baptist Church in Xew Orleans, and is still pastor in that Rome of the 
South. His congregation has secured a building lot on the best residence 
street in Xew Orleans, and his attention is now turned to the erection of a 
modem church home on this splendid property. On January 10, 1901, he 
married Miss Lena Sherrouse, the youngest daughter of Deacon C. M. Sher- 
rouse, of the First Baptist Church of Xew Orleans, and is now, as he says, 
'"living in his own hired house"' in thoroughly apostolic order. 
(245) 




UE^, ALil^T m 



im. 



THE UNKETURNING. ^47 

XXI 
THE UNEETUENING* 



By Eev. Albert Graham Moseley, Th. M., 

Louisiana 

Judges 5: 24 30. 

I. THE UNRETURNING OF THE TEXT 

^ ^ O LESSED above women shall Jael be, 

13 The wife of Heber, the Kenite, 
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. 
He asked water, she gave him milk ; 
She brought him butter in a lordly dish. 
She put her hand to the tent-pin, 
And her right hand to the workmen's hammer ; 
And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote through his head. 
Yea, she pierced and struck through his temples. 
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay : 
At her feet he bowed, he fell : 
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 
Through the window she looked forth, and cried. 
The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice, 
^Why is his chariot so long in coming ? 
Why tarry the wheels of his chariots ?' 
Her wise ladies answered her. 
(Yet she repeateth her words unto herself,) 
^Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? 
A damsel, two damsels to every man; 
To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, 
A spoil of dyed garments with embroidery. 

Of dyed garments with embroidery on both sides, on the necks of 
the spoil?"' 



^Preached at the "Earracks' MLssiou" in New Orleans in 1900. 



248 TPIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

These striking, yea, startling, words are understood only in the 
light of the history with which they are connected. It v/as in the 
days of the judges. Ehud, the second judge, had been slain, the 
rule of Shamgar, the third, had ended, and it was unto Deborah, a 
prophetess, who dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between 
Eamah and Bethel, that the children of Israel came for judgment. 
Preceding her rule, the Canaanites, whom Joshua had left in the 
land, had grown mightier than their masters, and for twenty years 
Jabin, their king, had sorely oppressed the people of God. Jabin^s 
rule was in Hazor, but Sisera, the captain of his host, had his head- 
quarters in Harosheth, on the west. 

The cries of the oppressed had gone up to God, and he had re- 
vealed unto Deborah that deliverance was at hand. Deborah called 
upon Barak of Kedesh to gather ten thousand men of Naphtali and 
Zebulun, and meet Sisera's hosts on the field of battle. Barak's 
judgment was greater than his valor, and he declared that he would 
not go unless Deborah should be at his side. This the prophetess was 
willing to do, and when Barak went dov/n from Mount Tabor to 
meet Sisera's hosts on the plain he had Deborah at his side, Jehovah 
leading on before and ten thousand choice warriors following at his 
heels. The battle was joined. The conflict was fiercely waged. 
God was with his people, and victory was theirs. The hosts of Sisera 
were pursued unto their camp at Harosheth, and all fell by the edge 
of the sword. But Sisera himself escaped from his chariot and fled 
on foot to the tent of Jael for shelter and protection. 

Following this signal victory, Deborah and Barak sang their song 
of exultation, and it is from this song that the words of the text are 
taken. This text presents two striking pictures, both of which are 
tragic scenes in the homes of women. One is in the east of Esdrae- 
lon in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, and the other, 
on the west of Esdraelon, is in the palace of the unnamed mother of 
Sisera, the captain of Jabin's hosts. 

Heber had separated himself from his people, the Kenites, and 
taken up his abode on the borderland of N"aphtali. Though seem- 
ingly closely allied with God's people, he was friendly with Jabin, 
the king of Canaan, and it was in Heber's home that Sisera fled 
when he escaped on foot from the battle that his forces had lost. 



THE UNRETUEXING. 249 

But Jael, the wife, had her heart with God^s people, and while re- 
freshing him v/ith milk when he had asked only water, and serving 
him with butter in a lordly dish, she was laying plans to compass 
his destruction. As he lay concealed under a rug in her tent and 
slept the sleep of exhaustion, she drove a tent-pin through his tem- 
ple and into the ground beneath. So the sleep of exhaustion became 
the last sleep — death. 

The second picture of the text is a scene in Sisera^s home in 
Harosheth. His mother has seen him go out to battle, and how 
long seem the hours while she awaits his return! She looks out 
through the latticed window with anxious longing and cries in tones 
of piteous pleading : 

' 'Why is Ills chariot so long in coming ? 
^Miy tarry the wheels of his chariots?" 

Her wise ladies are about her, and they seek to allay her fears with 
the assurance that the length of his stay is due only to the abund- 
ance of the spoil. They have stopped to divide the captive maidens 
and the dyed garments so rich in embroidery. But these words are 
not enough to still an anxious mother's heart, and even as they 
speak she keeps repeating to herself in undertones of piteous an- 
guish, "Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the 
wheels of his chariots?'' But her anxious longing must only pass 
into hopeless despair, for beyond Kishon, at the further side of the 
plain of Esdraelon, in the tent of Heber, the Kenite, there lies cold 
in death the son of her heart's love. Sisera had gone out to lift up 
his hand against the people of the Lord, and in that going out he 
numbered himself among the unreturning. 

II. THE UlS^RETURNIXG W'ORLD-W'IDE 

It were not so sad were Sisera's case the only one, but there have 
been unreturning through all the years, and to-night there are thou- 
sands who, for all that is known of their whereabouts in the homes 
that they left, have been swallowed up by the earth, A few years 
ago, in a Xew England town, the body of an unknown girl was 
found, and in answer to advertisements large numbers of letters 
were received from those who had daughters of whose whereabouts 
they knew nothing, and several different ones went so far as to iden- 



250 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

tify as their own the girl that was found. It is sadly true that for 
every lost one found there are many who are lost ones seeking. 

These unreturning wanderers include all classes. It was in yes- 
terday's daily that you read of a son who had stolen away from 
loved ones and home, and the paper of to-day tells the story of a 
husband who has deserted wife and children for a life of endless 
journeyings. Then there are daughters, and sometimes even wives 
and mothers, who have severed for all time the ties that they once 
counted sacred and true, and entered upon lives in which there 
seems to be no place of repentance and return. 

The kinds of homes from which the unreturning have gone out 
are as varied as are the classes of wanderers themselves. No home 
is exempt by reason of the abimdance of its wealth, and none by 
reason of the abjectness of its poverty. In the busy centres of popu- 
lation there are costly painted portraits that are turned toward the 
wall, and in the little vine-clad cottage far removed from the world'Si 
busy strife, a wanderer's candle burns in the window with every 
eventide. 

I went one morning into a home of wealth and luxury, where the 
father was cold and stern and the mother was pale and silent. They 
were too proud to speak of their erring wanderer to the stranger 
within their gates, but the traces of their grief could not be effaced. 
On that same day I went into the hut of a tenant, and though mani- 
fested in a different manner, the same sorrow had sought them out. 
Theirs was not a silent but a voluble grief, and their hearts ached 
none the less for her who came not again to the threshold that she 
had crossed for all time. In this city there are many homes from 
which loving ones look out to-night with the same anxious longing 
that filled the heart of Sisera's mother when she softly repeated to 
herself, "Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the 
wheels of his chariots ?'' 

The circumstances under which the unreturning go out are many. 
There are those who go out with the best motives in the world. They 
are honest and capable, and go out, like birds from the nest, to make 
their way in the world. But it is too often the case that those who 
go out witli the best of motives grow indifferent and neglectful as 
tlio days go by. Soiiu' yeai-s ago a young man loft a country home 



THE UNRETURXING. 251 

in northern New York and sought his fortune in the great cit}^ of 
his State. There came to him prosperit}^ and rapidh^ he grew 
wealthy. For a time he visited annually the old homestead and his 
loved ones. But as he grew more engrossed in business and more 
interested in the new ties that were formed, the visits ceased, and 
finally even letter- writing became a thing of the past. The mother 
had passed away, and in the absence of relatives the old father had 
cast his lot with neighbors. He was not in povert}^ but he was hun- 
gry for the son's love that might have cheered his closing days. 

Feebler and feebler still grew the old man, until there came one 
day to the son in his city home the brief telegram: "Come home, 
John, your father is dead." It may not have been intentional neg- 
lect, but it was neglect none the less cruel, that left the father to 
pass in loneliness to the end of his life, when those closing days 
might have been so greatly cheered by a son's attention and love. 

During my stay at the Seminary in Louisville there came to the 
President a letter from a Texas mother, asking for traces of her son, 
who had entered school at the opening of the session, but from 
whom she had not heard for a long time. The student was in 
school, was well, was busy with his studies, but had simply neglected 
his mother until she knew not whether he were living or dead. 

So there are thousands every year who thus go out innocently, but 
allow indiiference and neglect to grow upon them. Amid strange 
surroundings and new friendships they realize not how empty is the 
place that they have left in the homes and hearts of their deserted 
loved ones. 

Young men, have you let the days pass into weeks and months, 
and even years, perchance, since 3'ou went in person or by letter to 
that old home of yours, where anxious eyes look out through the 
window and longing hearts await your return? 

Then there are those who go out to throw off the restraints of 
home. They are eager to taste for themselves life's sinful pleasures. 
There has come to them the same restlessness and the same chafing 
under parental restraint that came to the prodigal son, when he 
said : "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me." 
As the appetite for sin constantly increases there is a constantly 
growing desire to lengthen the distance that separates from those 



252 TPIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT^ 

who know "US and whose very lives are a rebuke to the waywardness 
of our careers. The further we drift the more difficult does return 
become, and while the story books may tell you of an occasional 
wanderer who comes back to his waiting loved ones with fame and 
fortune, the fact about the great majority is that they drift further 
and further away, and are finally numbered with the unreturning. 
Again, there are those who go out because of crime committed. 
They cannot stay though they would, and their departure is has- 
tened by those who love them best. They leave those behind who 
are fearful that their erring ones will never return, and are more 
fearful still that they will return. This is the saddest class of all, 
for words of consolation for those who remain are but words of con- 
demnation for the sinning one who has gone. It is true, with 
Bryant, that 

"There are pangs of keenest woe, 

Of which the sufferers never speak, 
Nor to the world's cold pity show 

The tears that scald the cheek, 
Wrung from their eyelids by the shame 
And guilt of those they shrink to name, 

Whom once they loved with cheerful will, 

And love, though fallen and branded, still." 



"But they, who for the living lost 

Tliat agony in secret bear, 
Who shall wdth soothing words accost 

The strength of their despair ? 
Grief for their sake is scornod for them 
Whom they lament and all condemn ; 

And o'er the world of spirit lies 

A gloom from which they turn their eyes. ' ' 

But what is the secret of this going out ? What is the philosophy 
of the unreturning? It is found in one little word of three let- 
ters — s-i-n, sin. Sin is the out-driving power. In nearly every case 
it is sin that drives away from loved ones and home, and in every 
case it is sin that keeps away. It was not sin, perchance, that led that 
young man from his country home to make his way in the great city 



THE UNEETURNING. 253 

of his State, but it was sin that made him forget utterly the claims 
of aged loved ones upon his life. It was not sin that started that 
Texas student out for a better equipment for his life's work, but 
when he let even the duties of his student life interfere with a loving 
mothers claims upon his time, sin had found a place in his heart, 
even though it be only the sin of omission. 

The restlessness that leads the young man away from home in- 
fluences that it may pass into recklessness is due to sin. Sin was the 
out-driving power in the case of the prodigal son, and sin brought 
him to ruin amid the swine in that far country. Sisera was left 
dead in JaeFs tent, numbered among the imreturning, because he 
had sinfully lifted up his hand against the people of Jehovah. 

III. god's unreturning 

This thought of sin, being the basis of wandering lives, leads us 
from the tliis-world to the yon-world aspect of the unreturning. 
There is something sadder than turning one's back upon an earthly 
home. There is something more cruel than trampling under foot 
the goodness and love of an earthly parent. There is a Heavenly 
Father, and just in proportion as his love and mercies surpass those 
of earthly parents to that extent is it sadder to see the back turned 
for all time on that love and those mercies. Most of those who are 
wanderers from earthly homes are also numbered among God's un- 
returning, and many who are yet true to earthly homes take no 
thought whatever of that one which is heavenly. Come with me to 
the ]iIount of Olives and stand by Jesus' side while he looks out over 
old Jerusalem and pours out his heart in that pathetic wail: "0, 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! how often would I have gathered thee, . . . 
but ye would not!" Men and women, those same tender eyes look 
down upon you to-night, and that same loving heart is filled with 
yearning for your return. Will you heed the wooing call that he 
makes to you now? or will you by sinful neglect let your life be 
numbered among the unreturning for time and for eternity ? From 
the latticed window in Harosheth comes the pathetic "Why?" of 
Sisera's mother. But far more solemn is the "Why?" that comes 
to sinful man out of the compassionate love of the Eternal God. 



254 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXII 

THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL* 



By George W. Tkuett, D. D., 

Texas 

''Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I 
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. " — Eph. 3:8. 

FIEST and foremost of all Christ's servants in the work and 
triumphs of Christianity stands the Apostle Paul. And yet 
the most marked characteristic of his wondrous life was his hu- 
mility. If any man might have presumed to profess "sinless per- 
fection" Paul was that man ; but he would have regarded such pro- 
fession as an unspeakable blasphemy. See how he speaks of himself : 
"Unto me who am less than the least of all saints." Some four 
years before he designates himself as "the least of the apostles." 
And some five years later he confesses that he is the "chief of sin- 
ners." As he grew in the experimental knowledge of God's grace, 
he also grew in humility and self-distrust. Humility always ob- 
tains in proportion as men see the goodness and greatness of God. 
It was so with Job and Jeremiah and Isaiah. It is ever so. These 
men who do not know whether Christ is much are certain to think 
themselves much. Those whom God greatly honors in service are 
those whom he first greatly humbles. 

"God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble, and 
when he gives grace to the humble he gives all other grace." "Only 
by pride cometh contention." Pride was the chief ingredient in the 
sin that turned angels into demons. If Satan ever again knows 
what it is to hope it surely must be when he sees Christ's preacher 
inflated with his own proud conceit, for he remembers that this was 
the sin whereby he fell into eternal condemnation. 



^Annual sermon preached before the Southern Baptist Convention at Louis- 
ville, Ky., May 12, 1899. 




oi®i(gE w. imni, i. ro. 



GEOPGE AY. T.RUETT was born in Clay county, North Carolina, May 6, 
1867. He is of sturdy mountain stock. He received the rudiments of an 
education in Haysville Academy, N. C. ; taught school at eighteen; at 
nineteen was converted to God, and the same year became founder and prin- 
cipal of the Hiav.assee High School in Towns county, Georgia. He began 
teaching there in the court-house with twenty students, and in three years 
had two hundred and fifty, with considerable buildings. Not ^i^et a man, he 
thrilled the Georgia Baptist Convention in a speech on education and 
raised the highest expectations for his future. In three years he left a deep 
impression on his native mountain region, through the Hiawassee High 
School, which was intensely Christian, In 1889, he removed to Texas, en- 
tered Grayson College as a student, and soon became an educational force 
in his adopted State. Baylor University was then imperiled by hea^^ debt. 
A leader was earnestly sought, in a move to pay nearly one hundred thou- 
sand dollars indebtedness. After much prayer the trustees elected Mr. 
Truett. It meant to him the putting aside of his o\Am education, that others 
might be educated. In the spirit of sacrifice he took up the burden. In 
about two years the work was done and education greatly advanced in the 
State. He then entered Baylor University as a student. Having been or- 
. dained to the ministry by the church at Whitewright, Texas, in 1890, he be- 
came pnstor oi a \A'eak suburban church in Waco, which held services in a 
small house. He carried on the work of pastor and student together. 
Shortly, the house would not hold the people. A ten-thouisand-dollar house 
was undertaken and completed. In the meantime, the missionary offerings 
of the church advanced several hundred per cent. In 1894, Mr. Truett was 
married to Miss Josephine Jenkins, of Waco. He graduated at Baylor Uni- 
versity in 1897, taking the degree of Master of Arts. In 1897, he was called 
to the care of the First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas. In 1898, he de- 
livered the response to the welcome address before the Southern Baptist 
Convention in Norfolk, with such skill and power as at once to place hiim 
before the country as a master of assemblies. A year later he charmed the 
Convention in Louisville with the Convention sermon. In 1899, he Avas 
elected President of Baylor University, but declined because he felt that he 
is especially called to the pastorate. Bev. J. B. Gambrell, D. D., LL.D., 
says: "Pastor Truett is intimately connected with all progressive work in 
Texas. He has been many years Recording Secretary of the Board of Di- 
rectors of the State Convention, and a trustee of Baylor University. He 
is in great demand as a speaker and preacher for special occasions. He is 
mighty in word and in deed, fervent in spirit, as courageous as Paul, and as 
tender as John. He has refused many invitations to strong churches out of 
Texas, feeling that his work is with the great church in Dallas, over which 
he is sure the Holy Ghost has made him overseer. His working capacity 
and powers of assimilation are phenomenal. His preaching is a happy 
coiiihimilion of the doctrinal and spiritual. His is a soul-saving ministry 
and a growing ministry." 
(256) 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 257 

Well pleased is our great Master when he sees the becoming grace 
of hiimility adorning the lives of his servants. Both by precept and 
example he magnified its beauty and power. His whole earthly 
life was an illustration and demonstration of his saying: **I am 
among you as one that serveth."' And constant was his reiteration 
of the great truth. "Whosoever would be first among you let him be 
servant of all."' The true motto for all his people is that spoken by 
John : "He must increase, but I must decrease.*' 

]*^otwithstanding the lowly view Paul had of himself, he greatly 
magnified God's grace in making hxim a preacher of the gospel. 
Everywhere he went«his life bore out the saying, "T magnify mine 
ofiice.*' The preacher who does not should at once give up his office. 

Xothing can take the place of the Christian ministry. The pro- 
gress of civilization, the making of many books, the increase of 
schools and learning, the marvelous triumphs of the press — ^mighty 
as are all these agencies, they can never supersede the divinely-sent 
preacher. "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save 
them that believe.*' 

Let not Chrisf s minister for one moment lose sight of the divine- 
ness of his mission. Of such preac4ier some one has truly said: 
"He holds a divine commission, he proclaims a divine revelation, 
he is animated by a divine purpose, he accomplishes a divine result, 
he is dependent upon a Divine Spirit.'' If the preacher shall but 
be true to liis sublime and divine appointment he will stand among 
men without rivalry or competition — earth's mightiest man. In the 
great crisis of the past, matchless has been the influence wielded by 
God's prophets and preachers. When all other voices have failed 
they have rallied the wavering people to the standard of truth and 
righteousness. It was the golden-mouthed Chrysostom who became 
the oracle of the hour in the days when Antioch was smitten with 
terror. It was the flaming Augustine who ralKed his feUow-coun- 
tr}Tiien from despair and breathed into their lives new hope and 
purpose when imperial Eome lay bleeding and trampled beneath 
the heel of an invading oppressor. It was the plain yet invincible 
Luther who, when reeking corruption reigned in the papal court 
and spread its blight all over Europe, spoke forth words that echoed 
as the thunder and were piercing as the lightning, stirring a revo- 



258 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT, 

lution that thrilled all Christendom and marking a new epoch in the 
civilization of the world. As in the past so shall it be in the future 
that God's foremost instrument is his preacher in both the evangeli- 
zation and civilization of the world. Let it also be said in passing 
that there was an element in Paul's preaching that must needs be in 
all effective preaching. It was his tone of authority. He believed 
with all his heart his message, and as God's ambassador he delivered 
it without quailing for one moment under any fire. "There's untold 
power in him who knows his mission is a thing of God's own willing, 
and that it cannot fail, though doubts may shroud in cloud the 
transient hour." It is conviction that convinces. Earth's last place 
for stammering and indefiniteness is the pulpit. Christ's ambassa- 
dor is to proclaim his Master's message rather than to defend it. He 
is to be a witness rather than an advocate. Christianit}^ is nothing 
if it is not dogmatic. It has no reason for its existence if it is not 
sublimely positive. It is not a conundrum to be guessed at or a 
theory to be speculated upon, but it is a divine revelation which is to 
be implicitly accepted and followed with the deepest heart-throb of 
our lives. Christ's preacher is not here primarily to teach Christian 
evidences or apologetics, but his message is like that of the prophet 
of old — "Thus saith the Lord." To be continually on the defensive 
is contrary to the very genius and purpose of the gospel. The 
preacher is to be concerned mainly with the preaching of positive 
truth rather than the refutation of every passing error. Let not the 
last blatant attack of infidelity against the Bible be noticed over- 
much. It is not the chief business of God's minister to "answer 
the last fool who has escaped from the mortar in which he was 
brayed." The gospel faithfully preached is its own best defense. 
Let us who preach remember that we s})eak by divine authority ; not 
theories, but facts ; not what we don't know, but what our souls do 
know to their profoundest depths. I give it as the humble but 
deepest conviction of my heart, that the overmastering necessity of 
the modern pulpit is a return to that dogmatic tone of authority 
that characterized the apostles in the preaching of the gospel, and 
that must be found in all effective preaching the world over. 0, my 
brethren, if we shall but magnify our office as did Paul and be con- 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 259 

tent just to be faithful preachers of Christ, blessed, eternally 
blessed, shall be the results of our ministry. 

" 'Tis not a cause of small import 
A preacher's care demands ; 
But what might fill an angel's heart 
And filled the Saviour's hands." 

Paul was saved for a specific purpose — he was called unto a great 
mission. It is so with all the redeemed of Christ. What was Paul's 
mission? He tells us in our text: "That I should preach among 
the Gentiles the imsearchable riches of Christ." Let two thoughts 
growing out of the text engage our attention : 

First. The subject matter of the preacher's message. 

Second. The ministry is the heaven-appointed exponent of the 
mission of every redeemed soul. 

The first thought of our text is : 

I. The subject matter of the preacher's message. From the day 
when Paul first stood up as a witness for Christianity until that 
eventful day when he laid his head upon the block as a martyr for 
the truth, he unwaveringly held to one great theme, and that theme 
was salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. Once in his long 
ministry he seemed somewhat to leave his theme. It was when he 
contended with the philosophers of Athens in his great oration on 
Mars Hill. And there, beyond all other places, did his labors prove 
most feeble. It is significant that immediately afterward, when he 
came to Corinth, he "determined not to know anything among them 
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Always and everywhere he is 
careful thus to go on record : "We preach not ourselves, but Christ 
Jesus the Lord." The heaven-appointed centre for all true preach- 
ing is Jesus Christ, and to leave that centre is to lose the dominant 
power and purpose of the gospel. 

The plan of human redemption with Christ as the great key- 
stone in the mystic arch is the culmination and perfection of God's 
infinite mercy, wisdom, and love. To bring it to the attention of 
man, to vitalize it and make it a reality to him, all the providences 
of God have been directed for six thousand years. From the hour 
that the smoking blood of man's first offering rose from the sacrifi- 



260 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

cial altar down through the ages to the tragedy of Calvary, every 
act of vi^orship, every command of God, and every providence were 
all so many signboards pointing to that last and supreme act in 
God^s wonderful plan. Calvary has been the focal point upon which 
all the powers of darkness have hnrled their darts, and it has been 
the glorious prism that has caught the light of heaven and sent its 
refracted rays into the thick darkness of earth. To make a world, 
to create a system, to sv/ing into space this mighty canvas, was the 
work of a word. But the plan of man's redemption required the 
highest effort of the divine mind. It vacated the throne of the Son 
in heaven and brought the "mighty God" to earth to dwell among 
men. In the fullness of time God sent him forth, and yonder he lies 
the infant of Mary in Bethlehem's manger. For thirty and three 
years he walks the earthly way "a man of sorrow^s and acquainted 
v/ith grief." "He is despised and rejected of men." They plot his 
destruction. The last night of his life has come, and he is betrayed 
into the hands of his enemies. A mock trial is hurriedly had, and 
he is adjudged to die upon the cruel cross. The awful hour for his 
death has come and hellish m.alice nails him to the shameful tree. 
Between heaven and earth he hangs, thirsting, bleeding, praying, 
dying. His head has fallen upon his breast. He is dead. They 
take him down, and now earth's darkest night has come — the Lord 
of life and glory lies silent in the grave. The fiends of darkness 
now rise up and hope begins to bloom in hell, for the Son of Eight- 
eousness has been eclipsed ! Ah, wait ! Sing not too fast, ye legions 
of the pit! The dark night will pass aw^ay and there wn'll dawn a 
victorious morning. The morning has dawned. The fallen Con- 
queror breaks the bands of death and puts the grave beneath his 
feet. Before a gazing world he ascends on high, leading captivity 
captive, and gives gifts for men. And now again he is on his throne, 
where he reigns and loves and waits, to give salvation to any one 
who will only dare to trust him. 

My brethren in the ministry, if Christ has given unto us the grace 
of preaching, though like Moses we may have but a stammering 
tongue, yet in view of what man's redemption cost, in view of its 
divine authority and purpose, shall we ever in any presence, under 
any earthly pressure for any kind of reason, so far forget our heaven 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 261 

appointed mission, so grieve our dear Redeemer, so wrong a dying 
world, as to preach an}i;hing except the riches of the Lord Jesus 
Christ? Preach philosophy, or science, or culture, or worldly wis- 
dom, or beautiful platitudes, preach merely to please men or to en- 
tertain ! Sooner far let us commend to the lips of a famishing child 
a painted glass, filled with painted water ; or to a starving castaway 
apples of Sodom; or to a heart-broken mother a poem on the north 
pole ; or to a dying sinner the fables of ^sop. 

Here, brethren, is our message made out for us. It is Jesus 
Christ — in his divine personality, in the spotlessness of his human- 
ity, in his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King, in the atoning effi- 
cacy of his death, in the power of his resurrection, in the prevalence 
of his intercession, in the certainty and purpose of his coming again. 

Does some one venture to say that this theme is "too narrow"? 
Before he does let him remember that "the foolishness of God is 
wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 
Let him remember also that Christ on the cross is the harmony of 
every doctrine of divine revelation. There is seen the enormity of 
mean's sin and its infinite punishment. There the mercy and truth 
of God meet together, and there his justice and love are made to 
shine with eternal glory. This theme "too narrow"? It is an in- 
finite ocean, ever expanding before him who seeks to know its 
meaning. Well does Paul say of it that it is "unsearchable." In 
Christ is seen the procuring cause of man's justification, redemp- 
tion, sanctification, and glorification forever with God. In him is 
infinite knowledge for every student and comfort for all broken- 
heartedness, and forgiveness for every penitent wanderer. This is 
the only balm in Gilead that will surely heal the health of earth's 
sorrowing, sin-sick people. We "daub with untempered mortar" 
when we dare preach anything else for the healing of the sorrow and 
sin of a ruined world. JMan's sinfulness is ever the same and 
Christ's gospel is ever the same, and this message alone will break 
up the fallow ground of a sinful heart and turn it to God. Wherever 
it has gone, from king to barbarian, it has turned men from dark- 
ness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. 

Why should we preach Christ and him only ? Because this is the 
'^only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be 



263 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT., 

saved/^ and it is to save souls that we are called into Christ's service. 
Every other duty of the preacher is incidental to this one supreme 
and all-controlling object of the gospel. Yet, alh the preachers in 
the vs^orld left to themselves conld not bring to repentance one child 
of sin. Christ must save, and Christ alone. He left us the supreme 
lesson in homiletics when he said : "And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me.'' It is the attractive power 
of the cross gleaming like a searchlight through the words and 
thoughts of the preacher that kindles a fire on the altar of the sin- 
ner's conscience and turns him to God. It is only of Christ that the 
Divine Spirit testifies, and utterly futile, "twice dead, plucked up 
by the roots," are all our efforts if we do not have the Holy Spirit's 
fructifying presence and power. 

Paul knew whence came his power. He knew that with all his 
strength of wisdom and learning, left to himself he was as power- 
less to save a soul as an atom floating in the sunbeam is to quench 
the sun. Salvation by any human merit was to him a criminal doc- 
trine. He preached salvation by the Lord. In every message he 
boldly avowed the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth in whom dwelled 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was God manifest in the 
flesh, God over all, with unquestioned and absolute right to the 
loyalty and love of every human heart. Christianity does not ask 
for compliments. Christ is all and in all. We are not of those who 
believe in a Congress of Eeligions where Christ may receive little, 
if any, larger attention than Brahma, or Buddha, or Mohammed, 
or Joseph Smith ; or where it may even be conceded that Christian- 
ity is the best form of religion, provided it be also understood that 
all the other religions contain essential and saving truths. INFo, with 
all our souls we will denounce such treason against Jesus Christ. 
Christ is God, or he is the arch-deceiver of the ages. And for every 
theory against his divinity, whether it be Socinian, Sabellian, Uni- 
tarian, or what not, we v/ill say to their advocates: "Gentlemen, 
your theories are unutterably contemptible to us, and we will have 
none of your bouquets about Christ's 'splendid humanity' while you 
scout his divinity." But our challenge shall be: "If the Lord be 
God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." 

We should preach Christ and Christ only, because we have no war- 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 263 

rant or authority for preaching anything else. Paul wrote to the 
Galatians : "But though we^ or an angel from heaven, preach any 
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed." And then in the very next breath, in order 
more deeply to impress this fundamental truth with the curse at- 
tendant upon its violation, he repeats the awful sentence : "As we 
said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel 
unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed." Ah, 
brethren, like Paul, we will have no "other gospel," for if salvation 
through the atonement of Christ shall fail, then all has failed, for 
this is the very ultimatum of God. To be sure, "other gospels" are 
abroad these latter days, but we shall unwaveringly hold to the one, 
"Christ and Him crucified." And though many are seeking to be 
rid of that word "crucified," to us the great central fact of our re- 
demption is that "Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree." 
Salvation by his blood shall ever be our theme — we will know no 
other. We are not ignorant of the "other gospels" that are now 
being offered as a substitute for the one. We have the gospel of 
philosophy, the gospel of culture, the gospel of science, the gospel of 
sociology, the gospel of refined humianitarianism that is stealthily 
finding its way into some pulpits and is gilding much of our modern 
literature as it softly talks about "reconstructed manhood." We 
know about them all, and we know that with all their keenness of 
speculation and polish of learning and profundity of philosophy 
that not one of them has ever regenerated a single soul. We are 
not of those who have concluded that the old gospel of the cross is 
unsuited to the advanced thought and aesthetic taste of these cul- 
tured times. Not philosophy, nor culture, nor sociology, nor hu- 
manitarianism, in fullest possible measure can save lost men. Un- 
derneath them all the human heart will still sin on and sigh for 
Emanuel's peace and pardon. The old, old story, uttered by lips 
touched by a live coal from off God's altar and driven home to men's 
consciences with the voice of divine authority — this and this only 
can make the spiritual wilderness to blossom as the rose. It was 
such preaching by George Whitfield that, more than all things else, 
stirred the heart of the calculating Franklin and sent terror to the 
soul of the slvcptical Hume. This was the theme of Spurgeon for 



264: THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

nearly forty years, and under his ministry more than any other in 
this generation, lost men came flocking to God as doves to their win- 
dows, and great Christian enterprises sprang np like magic and the 
ever-increasing philanthropy and spiritual power of his church has 
been the wonder of this century. In contrast with such preaching 
shall I say a word about the trivial and sensational themes of some 
modern pulpits ? Many of them make us blush for very shame, for 
they are a travesty upon the high calling of Christ's ambassador. 
Take this series of sermons, for instance — mind you, of sermons: 
Shakespeare, Business, Courting, The Scolding Wife, The Husband 
Who Stays Out Late at Night, The Bicycle, The Two-Headed 
Woman, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Tan Shoes and Negligee Shirts, 
Did Men Come from the Monkey? Ah, when the preacher will thus 
pose as a mountebank and turn the sanctuary of God into a show- 
house, do you wonder at Sydney Smith's saying? It was this: 
"There are three orders in creation — men, women, and preachers." 
All such sensationalism in the pulpit is worse than sawdust. It 
is born of the secular and smacks of the street, and is a burning 
shame upon the Christian ministry. If the history of preaching 
proves anything, it proves that the preacher can have no deep and 
permanent grasp of power except as he holds up Christ and the 
great doctrines inseparable from him.. No other preaching w411 
even secure lasting morality, not to speak of regeneration. 

Surely if any man who ever lived might have hoped for good 
results from preaching something else than Christ, Paul might have 
ventured to try it. He was deeply versed in all the learning of the 
East, a great logician, a brilliant rhetorician, having a fervid fancy, 
a soaring imagination, and a magnetic power over men. He 
might easily have brought to his feet the proud Pharisee, tlie 
stoical scribe, the curious Greek, and the credulous barbarian. But 
at his feet he knew that they would have been no better off, no 
nearer salvation than if they had never heard his voice. He could 
have interested and pleased them, but he declared : "If I yet pleased 
men I should not be the servant of Christ.'' 



'I preached philosophy and men ap3)]auded; 
I preached Christ and men repented." 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 265 

My brothers, we are not here to win men by cleverness of speech. 
We are to be concerned, not that men may see our handsome bow 
and arrows and our skillful use of the same, but that we may hear 
the cries of the wounded of the Lord: "Men and brethren, what 
must we do to be saved?" You have heard of certain preaching 
as an "intellectual treat," as something "'perfectly grand," and all 
that. Our mission as preachers means nothing of the sort. If 
our preaching causes men to think that intellect or anything else 
is even to be compared with the saving of an immortal soul, then 
are we guilty of libel against the gospel of God's Son. 

Paul had no time to deal in platitudes. To him the world was 
lost. On the brow of every unsaved man the awful judgment of 
God, "condemned already," was written in letters of Stygian black- 
ness. This condemnation was to Paul no idle dream, but it was a 
present, awful reality, the contemplation of which burned in his 
bones like a fire and made him "count not his life dear unto 
himself" if only he might preach unto a lost world the "unsearch- 
able riches of Christ." 

Paul might have taken to the lecture platform to be what they 
now call a "moral reformer.'^ He -might have spent his days de- 
claring against the popular sins of avarice, pride, and formalism; 
or against the abuses and corruptions of government, and raised a 
world-wide riot against Eoman usurpation and tyranny. He 
might have poured the vials of his wrath upon hypocris}^, extortion, 
licentiousness, and the whole category of common sins; but in- 
stead of all this he steadfastly chmg to the one sufficient theme, 
"Christ and Him crucified." There is now a great itch abroad in 
the land demanding "reform." From theology clear down to a 
city council there must be an overhauling of things. The air is 
filled with screaming voices which propose to adjust the discord- 
ant elements of both church and state. The rivers of reform 
must wash out the Augean stables everywhere and scorching denun- 
ciation must be hurled against sin whether in places high or low. 
And shall not Christ's preacher faithfully rebuke sin everywhere? 
Ah, yes; but his is a far larger gospel than merely that. The 
preaching that has Christ for its centre will work every reform, 
and such reform will be permanent. PJghtly did some one say 



266 THE AMEKICAX BAPTIST PULPIT. 

that the proof of Christ's greatness was that he could stand before 
the Eoman empire and never strike it. He struck deeper than 
external conditions — he struck the hearts of men. Though cor- 
ruption reigned on ever}^ side and sin was defiant, yet he pointed 
men, not to outward conditions or questions, but to the eternal veri- 
ties of God. The emphasis of his message was put upon God and 
not upon man. It was so with the twelve ; it was so with Paul ; it 
was so with John the Baptist ; it was so with God's prophets of old ; 
it is so with every successful winner of souls. All sins are included 
in the one sin of the rejection of Christ. For this reason Paul knew 
and the truth is overwhelming, eternal, divine, that though he could 
drive all men from their sins outwardly, yet they would still be lost 
eternally without "Christ in them the hope of glory." He knew 
that it was worse than useless to drive all these devils out of the 
heart if there was not a "strong man armed'^ to keep them out. 
Otherwise the "last state of that man would be worse than the first." 
He knew that if he preached Christ, the power of God unto salva- 
tion, and he was received into the heart, the expulsive power of this 
new affection would triumph over all sin and save the soul from 
death. 

Fathers and brothers in the divine vocation of the ministry, es- 
pecially my young comrades in this holy warfare, let us not be 
trifiers in our heaven-appointed mission. Contemptible is the 
memory of Xero — he fiddled while Eome was burning. Aeropus, 
of Macedonia, was one of the most insignificant kings in history 
because he spent his time whittling on trifles while the supreme 
interests of his kingdom were disregarded. How like them both 
is the preacher who expends his energies upon secular and transient 
themes, never touching the great centre of truth, and having an in- 
different regard to the momentous interests of eternity. May our 
fidelity to Jesus be far more sublime than that of the French sol- 
diers who so loved their emperor that, though wounded and dying 
on the field of battle, with one last effort they would turn upon 
their elbows and cr^^ out as he passed, "Long live the emperor!" 
my brothers, it matters little what shall become of us if only we 
shall exalt the name of Christ. Our ease, our worldly prospects. 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 267 

our reputation^ all, all may go for naughty if only always and every- 
where we may know only this — to exalt the name of Christ. 

* 'Happy if with my latest breath 
I may but speak His name; 
Preach Him to all, and gasp in death, 
Behold, behold the Lamb." 

But now, more briefly, let us look at the second thought deduced 
from the text: 

II. The ministry is the heaven-appointed exponent of the mis- 
sion of every redeemed soul. As Paul was saved for a specific pur- 
pose and called unto a great mission, so is it true of every redeemed 
soul in the kingdom of God. Salvation is of en too narrowly de- 
fined. It not only saves from, but it saves unto. It not only bestows 
unspeakable benefits, but it imposes world-wide obligations. It not 
only has reference to ourselves, but v.^e are made Christians in order 
that we may instrumentally make other Christians. Paul's life was 
one sublime effort to be true to the last command of Christ : "Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel to ever}^ creature." That 
command has never been revoked, nor in any wise modified, and is 
as binding upon us as it was upon Paul or upon those who heard 
it as it fell from the Master^s lips on Olivet. 

Christianity is essentially and fundamentally missionary. He 
who reads God's Word aright sees that the missionary idea is the 
very essence of divine revelation. It proclaims this truth with ten 
thousand tongues of fire. If you could but banish from the gospel 
the missionary idea, it would never give forth another sound. ISTo 
sinner would ever again be invited to Christ. ISTo Bible would ever 
again be printed or circulated, except as a money venture. And the 
whole scheme of Christianity would collapse under the superin- 
cumbent weight of an inordinate and all-prevalent selfishness. 

]\Iissions is not simply an organ of the church, but the church 
itself is the organ for missions. To this end the church was made — 
for this cause Christ brought it into the world. The work of mis- 
sions, therefore, is not a little optional annex to a church, but it is 
as essential to the true work of the church as is the heart essential 
to the human body. 



268 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

What is Christ's church? It is his body, the instrument of his 
purpose, of which he is the head. It is the business of the head to 
direct and control the body. Christ, the great head, is law-giver 
and director over his body, the church. The mission of Christ's 
church must be identical with the mission of Christ himself. What 
was his mission? Find that out and you will know the mission of 
every church and every individual Christian. He himself so tells 
us : "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Here is the 
great source of the church's authority and purpose. And a church 
could furnish no other evidence half so strong that she is not a 
New Testament church, as the refusal or disinclination to obey 
Christ's last and all-inclusive commandment. And a preacher, 
even though he may have been baptized and may talk much about 
"soundness in the faith," could furnish no stronger evidence that he 
is not in the apostolic succession than that he is not a missionary. 

High time is it that the consciences of very many people were 
faithfully aroused as to the nature and meaning of Christ's churches 
in the world. False views abound on every side. A church of 
Christ is not an ark in which a few of the elect are to be happily 
housed in order that they may float around joyfully over the drown- 
ing world beneath them. Nor is it a ship passage upon which will 
land us in the heavenly country. Nor is it an insurance company 
to which, we may pay dues now and then, and thus certainly secure 
our dear selves against all loss. Nor is it a hospital for healing all 
manner of sickness. Nor is it a select social club with a toast- 
master to call out such themes as shall provoke the building up of 
a mutual admiration society. Nor is it a debating society where 
more attention is to be given to the fine points of ecclesiasticism 
than the consuming passion of Christianity. Nor is it a school 
where we may gather as students to be forever taught. Nor is it 
merely a place of worship where we may give ourselves to song and 
praise and meditation about our heavenly inheritance. Christ's 
church is not any of these, nor all of them combined ; but with my 
whole heart I declare that his church exists solely to give the gospel 
to all the world. This groat motive is its native air, and any church 
that will persistently ignore this heaven-appointed work does not 
have the moral riglit to tlie ])lot of ground on wlrlcli the church 



THE SUBJECT AND TIIE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 269 

building stands. Christianity is incomparably more than a creed — 
it is a life. Any other conception than that Christ's church is to be 
a sonl saving army is a caricature upon the church of the Xew Tes- 
tament. And the day comes on apace — may God speed its com- 
ing — when any church not missionary, both in spirit and practice, 
shall be regarded as a monstrosit}^, and when the regular giving of 
money for world-wide evangelization shall be as great a test of 
orthodoxy as is baptism. Furthermore, Christ's church is to be 
sublimely aggressive rather than defensive. He did not mean that 
his soldiers should be chiefly engaged in building forts of defense. 
Any church that merely sits and sings ^'hold the fort" will soon 
have no fort to hold. We hear a great deal now about "expansion." 
I don't know what the politicians intend to make of it all, but I 
do know that the key-word of Christianity is expansion. "His 
dominion shall extend from sea to sea, and from the river unto the 
uttermost ends of the earth." N'apoleon said: "Conquest has made 
me what I am, and conquest must maintain me." Inviolably true 
is it of Christ's churches that conquest must ever be their watch- 
word. Not only the well being but the very being of a church de- 
pends upon its fidelity to the one design for which Christ brought it 
into the world. Self-preservation demands that it shall be mis- 
sionary. The anti-mission spirit is the death of spiritual develop- 
ment. It is the fruitful parent of coldness, selfishness, and hard- 
ness of heart, and it is the hot-bed and brooding place of suspicion, 
bickerings, malice, heresy, and all uncharitableness. The conse- 
quences to a church without the mission spirit are so direful that 
it becomes a hospital, and unless it is converted God removes its 
candlestick, and then it becomes a graveyard. Our only safety is 
that we give ourselves to the supreme purpose and passion of Chris- 
tianity. Yea, more, our very culture will become our hindrance, if 
it be not inflamed and impassioned by the Spirit of Christ. 

What shall be our motive for this great work? The first and 
supreme motive for all missionary work is the command of Jesus 
Christ. Surely this is an all-sufiicient reason. Xo Christian has 
the right to cavil or halt one second here. Even though a thousand 
objections to the work might be presented, and though it were shown 
that it would take uncounted resources, both of men and money, to 



270 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT., 

reach one single heathen, yet the duty to obey would not be altered 
one iota. Our Saviour and King commands world-wide evangeliza- 
tion, and disobedience to such command for any cause is bold 
treachery to our trust as Christians, and cold treason against Jesus 
Christ. There are many other reasons for obedience to such com- 
mand, but they are unnecessary except as they may awaken our 
zeal and strengthen our faith. There are the motives of gratitude, 
and chivalry, and sympathy, the marvelous missionary triumphs 
already achieved, and still other motives, potent and urgent. But 
underlying all these motives and springs of action is the plain, un- 
changeable command of Christ. At the bloody battle of Troy, 
Henry IV of France said to his soldiers : "When you lose sight of 
your colors, rally to my white plume. You will always find it in 
the way to glory." So when every other motive to missionary effort 
fails, this one, loyalty to Christ's command, stands firm as the 
adamantine hills. And loyalty to Christ, we have always made bold 
to say, is the fundamental principle in our denominational life. We 
reject utterly all assumed authority from any human source what- 
soever. "One is our Master, even Christ." We boldly repudiate 
the right of pope or council, or anybody else, to ignore scriptural 
baptism, or change that ordinance in any respect from the Christ- 
given pattern. my brethren, I pause and tremble as I ask what 
shall be said of our loyalty to Christ's last but all-inclusive com- 
mand ? Take the figures : One billion human beings are without the 
gospel; forty million die every year; one hundred thousand die 
every day; four die every time we breathe: and yet, and yet, South- 
ern Baptists are giving less than ten cents per member per year for 
their eternal salvation! I wonder if that is the one-thousandth 
part of our proper loyalty to Christ on the question of money! I 
wonder if hundreds of men in this Convention should not this hour 
be preaching the gospel in the regions beyond! 

We shall not cease to make much of orthodoxy, but I would write 
it this night in letters of living fire that true orthodoxy is lacking 
in any preacher or church that can close the ear against the Mace- 
donian cry of earth's perishing millions and maintain an indifferent 
concern to our Master's command to "go." There is a heresy of 
inaction as well as of precept. How much better is faith without 



THE SUBJECT AND THE OBJECT OF THE GOSPEL. 271 

works than works without faith? There is such a thing as a dead 
orthodoxy. We may orate eloquently about creeds and engage in 
endless discussion over the fine points of ecclesiasticism, but above 
all this stands out the living Word of God: "Be ye doers of the 
Word, and not hearers only." "If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments.'^ I plead for a living orthodoxy, not a dry, dead dogma, out 
of which has gone all the blood and heart-beat, leaving only a grin- 
ning, ghastly skeleton behind, but an orthodoxy, every heart-beat 
of which can be felt and which is the incarnation of practical loy- 
alty to God. 

Our great people, well is it known, are sublimely set for the de- 
fense of the faith once delivered, and as sublimely set against all 
heresy. God be thanked! May we always stand for the simple 
faith of the 'New Testament and declare that there is a difference, 
yea, even an impassable gulf between truth and error. But when 
we do this let us remember that the "life is more than meat and the 
body more than raiment.'^ Let us remember that the deadliest of 
all heresies is the anti-mission heresy. And let us remember that 
the anti-mission heresy is the black plague of the Southern Baptist 
Convention. 

Brethren, the hour comes to our people, and even now is, that the 
landmark that most of all needs resetting is the restoring of a 
predominant mission spirit to all our people. Let it be understood 
throughout all our borders from the blue waters of the Chesapeake 
to the silvery sands of the Eio Grande that we regard as our life 
business the evangelization of the world. That all our denomi- 
national enterprises have utterly missed their purpose if they do 
not stand for the central truth of Christianity. Let this be true 
of our denominational papers, of our Christian colleges, of yonder 
matchless Theological Seminary. Oh! when we have as much 
Christianity as we have orthodoxy, then will we soon take the world 
for Jesus. 

It is said that over the door of an old Moorish palace, the Alham- 
bra, on the on-e side, carved in stone, was a book, and on the other 
side, reaching out to clasp the book was a hand. In connection with 
this there was a legend that some day the hand would clasp the 
book, and then the Alhambra would fall. That old Moorish palace 



272 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT.. 

ma}^ be taken as the symbol of the dark kingdom of evil in the 
earth — Satan's Alhambra, for whose subjugation and destruction 
God's people go forth to war. When will Satan's stronghold be 
beaten down and the victory of God's people be complete? It will 
be when the hand clasps the book. The hand is the hand of duty 
and the book is the book of doctrine, and when duty and doctrine go 
forth united in the fullness and power of meaning intended by God, 
then shall the Alhambra of sin speedily totter to its everlasting doom 
and Christ shall be exalted Lord over all forevermore ! 

Brethren, I believe that the hour of destiny has come to our 
people. The voice of God's providence rings out louder than the 
voice of many waters, "Go forward !" Every Eed Sea of difficulty 
has been divided and the gates to all the nations stand ajar. A little 
while ago the obstacles everywhere seemed insuperable. An impas- 
sable wall surrounded China. The ports of Japan were entirely 
sealed. The Dark Continent was impenetrable even to the ex- 
plorer. The isles of the ocean were thronged with cannibals more to 
be dreaded than all the dangers of the sea. 'Now the doors swing 
wide open to every people. Japan is white to the harvest. India is 
restless to hear of Jesus. The great men of China yearn to knov/ the 
oracles of God. Mohammed's crescent wanes, and the shrines of 
every false religion now are tottering, and their idols begin to 
crumble into dust. The nations are impressible as the wax. The 
signs of the times, the policies of governments, the majestic march 
of events, are all instinct with divine meanings, and are the true 
burning bush whereby God is mightily revealing himself to the 
world. At last, even the very elements of nature have all been laid 
under tribute for the forwarding of the chariots of our Lord. We 
stand facing the opportunity of the ages. My brothers, in the 
presence of such matchless opportunities, in this day of the riglit 
hand of God, ought not every man of us to cease from all minor 
things and join in the sublime effort at once to give the gospel to 
the world? 

A French drummer boy was once urged by a fleeing officer to 
'"beat a retreat," and the boy replied : "Sire, I cannot beat a retreat, 
but, oh, I can beat a forward march that would make the dead fall 
into line." Baptists of the South ! let us from this Convention 



THE SUBJECT AXD THE OBJECT OE THE GOSPEL. 273 

beat a forward march the spirit of which shall penetrate onr 
chtiTches like a flame of fire, and this year call forth men and money 
in snch wondrous fashion as shall fill the whole earth with aston- 
ishment and demonstrate that otir only concern this side of heaven 
is to be loyal to Jesns Christ. Brethren. I believe that even Satan 
himself marvels at onr slowness. Israel took forty years to make a 
jonrney that onght to have been made in eleven days. We are doing 
that very thing to-day. One thousand of onr chnrches in the Sonth 
onght to snpport one missionary each for the coming year. God 
give ns obedience to snch heavenly vision I 

For a long, long while there came on every sighing breeze from 
the fair isle of Cnba a piteons cry for help. At last onr land rose 
np. and with men and money went forth and gave relief. Adown 
the cenrories there has come an unceasing cry in tones of tenderest 
love: ••! thirst.*'* I hear it even now. "T thirst.'*' Whose is the 
voice ? It is the voice of Jesns dying on -^-he cross, "T thirst.'* That 
thirst has never yet been quenched. He thirsts for China, for Asia 
and Africa, for the Filipinos, for poor lost men wherever fonnd. 
let ns rise np and qnench his thirst. Then shall he see the 
travail of his sonl and be satisfied. And all the redeemed shall be 
satisfied with him. and from all their blood-washed lips this glad 
hosannah shall tins: out forever: Emanuel — God is with ns. 



274 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXIII 
FOUE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE 



By Arthur James Barton^ D. D., 

Arkansas 

"Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all the things that are commanded 
you, say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which it was our 
duty to do."— Luke 17 : 10. 

THE dialogue of which this is the culmination at first glance 
seems disjointed, but upon closer thought it shows perfect con- 
sistency. The Saviour introduced it by the announcement that 
offenses will surely come; that it is indeed impossible that they 
should not come. He follows this with a curse upon the head of 
every offender, saying, "But woe unto him through whom they 
come. It were well for him if a mill-stone were hanged about his 
neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should 
cause one of these little ones to stumble." The injunction that fol- 
lows this, urging the disciples to take heed to themselves and to 
forgive every offender, at first glance seems to have little connec- 
tion with what precedes. The meaning is manifestly this : He fears 
that they, having heard him pronounce a curse upon offenders, may 
assume the prerogative of doing likewise. It is as though he would 
say to them, "I am the Lord of heaven and may pronounce curses, 
but you are only weak and erring creatures. It is yours only to 
forgive.'^ "Take heed to yourselves : if thy brother, sin against thee, 
rebuke him (that is, tell him his fault, not rail at him) ; and if he 
repent, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a 
day, and seven times turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou 
shalt forgive him." The apostles regarded this as the most difficult 




J= lAi 



ARTHUR JAMES BARTON was born three miles northwest of Jones- 
boro, Craighead county, Ark., February 2, 1867. His father, William Hen- 
derson Barton, being a farmer, Arthur performed during his boyhood and 
youth nearly all of the tasks incident to the simple life on the farm at that 
time in the young State. He made the best of the limited educational ad- 
vantages near his home, but when he entered the Southwestern Baptist 
University at Jackson, Tenn., at eighteen years of age, he was almost wholly 
unprepared. But having earned the money on which he started at the uni- 
versity by picking cotton and working on a railroad, he was not easily dis- 
couraged, and was soon considered among the best in his class. He re- 
mained there at school until Jime, 1891, with the exception of one session, 
and might have taken B. A, had he not made his plans to spend another 
year and take M. A. But becoming engaged in teaching and the work of 
the ministry, he did not return to the university. His Alma Mater con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in June, 1899. Blessed 
with pious and devout parents, the boy, even in very early childhood, re- 
ceived strong religious impressions, and professed conversion at twelve 
years of age. The impressions that he should preach, which in some dim 
and childish way he had always had, grew with the passing of the years, 
and it was with this purpose that he entered college. During the year be- 
ginning October, 1888, he was pastor at Batesville, Ark. After this he 
preached to country and village churches during the remainder of his uni- 
versity course. During the vacation of 1891 he was chosen by the directors 
of the Academy at Gadsden, Tenn., where he was then pastor, to its princi- 
palship. He accepted the position and gave one year to it, in connection 
with preaching at the Gadsden and other churches. For the next two years 
he was President of the Lexington Baptist College at Lexington, Tenn. 
From May, 1894, to August, 1896, he was pastor of the North Edgefield 
Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn. He then accepted the office of Assistant 
Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern 
Baptist Convention. This board has its offices at Richmond, Va., and there 
Dr. Barton remained for three years and a half. For the second time within 
two years he was called to his native State to become the Corresponding 
Secretary of the missionary boards of the Arkansas Baptist State Conven- 
tion. He accepted and entered upon his duties in February, 1900, and now 
fills this office, residing at Little Rock. 
(276) 



rouE rrvDAAizxiAL laws of cheisxiax seevice. 277 

of all the hard savings of our Lord. He had eommanded them 
many things, and many of them difficult of obedience, but this they 
regarded the hardest, and, turning, they lifted up their piteous 
plea, saying, "'•Increase our faith."' The Lord, seeing their hearts 
sinJdng down in despair, was touched with pity, and seeking to 
encourage them, said : 'U ye hare faith as a grain of mustard seed, 
ye would say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou rooted up and be 
thou planted in the sea : and it would have obeyed.'' The hearts of 
the apostles, a moment ago so greatly discouraged, even despairing, 
are not only filled with cheer by this encouraging assurance, but 
even l^egin to indulge in unbecoming pride. The Saviours quick 
eye discovers the feeling of rising pride in their hearts. It is as a 
rebuke for and warning against this that he says : "'But who is there 
of you, having a servant plowing or keeping sheep, that will say 
unto him, when he is come in from the field. Come straightway and 
sit down to meat; and will not rather say unto him. Make ready 
wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me till I have 
eaten and drunken: and afterward thou shall eat and drink? Doth 
he thank the servant because he did the things that were com- 
manded ?"'* Pausing long enough for their hearts to make answer, 
he then appeals to them in. the language of the text, •'ETen so ye 
also, when ye shall have done all the things that are commanded 
you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done that which It 
was OUT duty to do.'' The text, with its one great broad, sweeping 
thought, is, above everything else, an appeal for humility in ser- 
vice, rewards careful study ia the gift of rouE fotdamextal laws 
OF Chbistiax seevice. It is to these that I direct yotir thought; 
it is this that I would lay upon your hearts. 



The first of these laws is contained in the word "'commanded," 
and is, that all Christian service must be ordered according to the 
commandments. I am fully aware of the fact that if I should make 
a plea for the study of the Bible by each individual, I should have 
to do it in phrases so trite that none of you would thank me for 
bringing the message. Yet if I were asked to point out the weakest 



278 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

spot in the average Christian life — indeed, I might say in ever}^ 
Christian life — I should unhesitatingly say that it is a lack of the 
study of the Word. If we should arraign our own hearts and im- 
peach them for their sins, we should doubtless have to put at the 
head of the column this neglect. It is the one sin that is the sire 
of the largest hoard of others. Iso man can ever live a really pure 
life or render a noble service until he fills his heart with the things 
that are commanded. 

1. This law of service stands first of all as against our feelings 
and caprice. So many of us undertake to serve God according to 
our feelings and convenience. For instance, most of us come to 
church when we feel like it. God's Word says : "Forsake not the as- 
sembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is but ex- 
horting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day ap- 
proaching," Or again, we give of our substance for the support of 
the interests of God's kingdom and the advancement of that king- 
dom through the proclamation of his word only when we feel like 
it, having had our hearts stirred and our emotions wrought upon 
by some great speech or sermon. God's Word says: "As I have 
given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the 
first day of the week let every one of you lay b}^ him in store as 
God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." 
And throughout the entire range of Christian thought and life 
God's Word stands in this cutting contrast with the fickle feelings 
and natural desires of the human heart. The great question with 
you is not or ought not to be how you feel or what you desire, but 
what does God's Word say; what are the commandments? In the 
hours of temptation the only thing that can furnish support and 
enable us to withstand the evil one and Jive lives of holiness imder 
God is a deep, divinely-wrought conviction of the teachings of God's 
Word, God's message to man. The one great reason why we have 
so much shortcoming among our church members, so many f allings- 
away from duty, so much wandering into by-paths, is that we have 
not yet come to realize keenly as we ought that this Book, being 
used as the efficient instrument in the hands of God's Spirit as 
the efficient agent, is the great sanctifying power and the great 
and unfailing guide in service. 



POUR fuxda:mextal lavs of cheistiax service. 279 

One briglit, crisp autuxim day I started for a fourteen-mile drive 
in the country over in Tennessee with a drummer friend. Having 
known something of his life^ I addressed him in the familiar way 
that our friendship allowed, saying, "Bill, I wish 3-on wonld tcU 
me your Christian ex]Derience as we drive?'" He said, "I shall be 
glad to do so.*" Briefly stated, his story ran thus : "When I was a 
mere boy some thirteen or fourteen years old I made a profession 
of conversion and joined the church, starting out to live a Chi';-- 
tian life, but I made one mistake. It was a serious mistake ; I started 
without my Bible. Temptation came, and having nothing to sup* 
port or guide me, I jielded and went into sin. I went from bad to 
worse, and from the worse to the worst. One day I was down at the 
railroad station when the passenger train came in. I was crazed 
by drink and I stepped on the train, leaving my wife and child, as 
noble woman and sweet child as ever lived. The conductor came to 
me and asked for my ticket. I said : "I have no ticket ; here is a 
five-dollar bill. If I am on here when this is gone, come back and 
I will give you more. That was the last thing I knew for about 
two weeks. I came to myself one _day about noon walking the 
streets of a strange city. I knew not where I was. I looked at the 
buildings and the streets to try to locate myself, but could not. 
Finally I hailed a passer-by and said, Triend, tell me where I am; 
what city this is.^ He told me. I took my bearings and took the 
next train for the home of my uncle living some 400 miles from 
there in the country. I said to my uncle and aunt, ^Help me up.-* 
I then went to your church there in the country, as you will re- 
member, and renewed by vows and set out afresh to live a Chris- 
tian life. That time I took my Bible. I have never traveled a 
single day without it in my grip. When the other drummers are 
down in the hotel office cracking jokes, spinning yarns, and pla}ing 
cards, I am up in my room reading my Bible. When a question of 
right and wrong is to be settled, I settle it, not according to how I 
feel, but according to God's Word. Since that time I have had little 
or no trouble to live at least a passable Christian life.'' If you are 
trying to live a Cliristian life and serve God without an intelligent 
knowledge and deep conviction of the commandments, you are mak- 
ing a bungling effort. 



280 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT., 

2. But this law of service stands also as against tradition. See 
how it reads: "Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all the 
things that are commanded." IsTot the things that some' one else has 
done, not the things that even your parents have done. It is ex- 
ceedingly difficult for ns to realize intensely that each and every 
individual must give an account of himself nnto God; that each 
one must study God's Word for himself, and know God's teachings 
for "himself. ISiOT does this at all belittle the example and the in- 
fluence or the teaching of others. Most of us are caught up and 
borne along by the tide of popular opinion and sentiment, and yet 
if I am to regard the commandments, I must know them for my- 
self. A returned missionary to Africa related to me this experi- 
ence: On one of his journeys it became necessary for him to cross 
a river. His only hope was either to construct a ferry boat or to go 
over according to the native method. The native method is this: 
Taking an immense gourd that is grown there, the natives cut 
finger holes as far around as a young African can reach. A strong 
young man hugs the gourd to his breast and thrusts his fingers into 
these holes. He then thrusts himself out into the stream and 
swims behind the gourd upon which the passenger sits, his feet 
dangling in the water. The missionary was not particularly taken 
with the idea of crossing over in this fashion, so he told the natives 
that he could construct a boat that would carry over ten or a dozen 
men at a time. Seeking an interview with the king who ruled over 
this section, he obtained the ruler's permission to make the boat. 
The natives fell to and helped him, and the boat was soon con- 
structed. The king came out and saw its trial trip and seemed 
much delighted. The missionary went on his way, and in a brief 
while returned, expecting, of course, to cross over the river in his 
own boat. To his astonishment the boat was gone. Upon inquir- 
ing he found that the king had ordered it cut loose, that it might 
go down the river. Upon his remonstrance with the king, the king 
said : "Our fathers crossed over on the gourd, and we purpose to go 
over on the gourd, too." A great many people are crossing over on 
the gourd in religious matters and religious service because their 
fathers did so. 



POUR FUXDAMEXTAL LAWS OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. 281 

I walked the streets of my town one day with a gentleman friend. 
He said, "You are a Baptist/' I said, "Yes.^^ He said, "I sup- 
pose your 'father and mother are Baptists.^' "Yes, they are, but I 
perceive the drift of your remark; you mean to say that I am a 
Baptist because they are.'' He said, "Well, I suppose that is about 
it." I said, "Far from it. I would not impeach my intelligence 
and stultify myself by being anything in religion because anybody 
else was that." He said, "Well, I acknowledge frankly, I am a 
Catholic, and my only reason for being one is that my mother was 
a Catholic. She is now dead and gone, and I feel it would not be 
respectful to her memory to believe anything or do anything in 
religion that she did not believe or do." I talked once with an in- 
telligent business man, and he said : "I was at prayer meeting last 
night and our pastor asked, ^Why are you a member of this church?' 
Having repeated the question several times, he finally looked at me, 
pointed his finger right in my face and said, ^Why are you a mem- 
ber of this church ?' I answered from the pew, '^Because my mother 
was.' " And he smiled as though he had said something bright. I 
could not refrain from saying, "My friend, I hope the day may 
come when you will have a higher conception of your church mem- 
bership and obligation and deeper conviction of religious teaching 
and religious life than to be a member of any church because your 
mother was." 

Brethren, brethren, I make a plea to-day. It is for the direct ap- 
peal by every individual child of God to God's holy Word as the only 
and all-sufficient rule of Christian faith and life. Against parental 
control and authority and example, or against filial regard and rev- 
erence, not a word. I believe in all these with fervor. The holiest 
influence this side of heaven is the influence of parents over chil- 
dren. I remember that one day in this my native State a two- 
horse wagon drove up before the front gate of a humxble country 
home. A spring seat was in the front, a trunk was put in the rear. 
I remember that a father and son sat in that seat while another 
boy, son and brother, sat on the trunk. As the wagon went down 
the gentle slope of the little hill on which the home stood, the boy 
sitting on that trunk felt his heart sinking within him as the home 



282 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

faded from view behind the clump of trees^ and the great thought 
came over him that he was leaving home and going out into the 
world. I remember a figure who stood at the gate throwing her last 
good-bye kisses, poorly concealing the fast-falling tears. I re- 
member the long struggle in college life and how many a time that 
boy's heart sank down into despair as the battle against poverty and 
the struggle for better things raged sore. I remember how at such 
moments the thought came, Be a man ; win the victory for the sake 
of father and mother, who even now pray for their boy. I remem- 
ber how, when the vacation time drew near, almost the hours were 
counted until the home-coming time. I remember the leaving 
greetings and the warm mother kiss. I rememxber how in after 
years, when the boy stood in another State preaching this same 
gospel, the cruel message came, I remember the long night on the 
cars. I remember how he stood, his heart wrung with anguish, and 
said in the presence of a lifeless form, "Mother, if you could only 
speak to me again, it v/ould be almost enough.'' I remember visit- 
ing, in company with a loving father, the country church 3'ard, 
putting the flowers there, and watering them with the fast-falling 
tears of a joyful gratitude. I remember sitting on the front porch 
and talking with that father until one o'clock that night and say- 
ing to him : "There are some things I want to tell you, chief among 
them is, that all that this poor life is or may ever be I owe under 
God, to you and to mother." 

I remember all these things and a thousand other sacred scenes 
and holy influences, and yet when I stand in the presence of the 
cross of Jesus Christ and see him bleed and die for my sins, when I 
hear him say, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." Who is father, who is mother, that I 
should think of them ? I can only come with a heart broken by sin 
and thrilled by rejoicing in the hope and sense of pardon through 
his atoning blood and say, "Lord Jesus, speak ; thy servant heareth." 

II 

The second law of service contained in the text is found in the 
word "all," and may be stated thus : Our service should have a re- 



FOUR FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. 283 

gard for all of the commandments. Many of ns have a zeal for the 
commandments, but only a few of us have a zeal for all of the com- 
mandments. Go where you may, and whenever you find persons 
who make any pretense to religion, you will find them, very zealous 
for some commandments that they regard as the great and im- 
portant commandments. They go through the Book and pick out 
those that suit their crochet; and emblazoning their banners with 
them, they go down the way shouting themselves hoarse, saying to 
all the world: "Come with us; see our banners, see the great and 
important commandments ! Come, let us obey these ! The moral 
universe will go to pieces unless we can secure the enforcement of 
this. The salvation of society lies here." Yonder you see a little 
company of Sabbatarians with their banners uplifted. Over yonder 
is a company of Prohibitionists, and so on and so on. Kot a word 
in disparagement of any company of people who have put proper 
emphasis upon and secured the observance of any of the Lord's com- 
mandments. My plea is for a just regard for them all. 

Let me use our Baptist people as an illustration. Many of us 
have shouted ourselves hoarse about the commandments touching 
baptism, the Lord's supper, and church order. And yet at the same 
time have almost or quite forgotten other commandments that are 
incomparably more weighty, if we may be allowed to classify the 
Lord's commandments at all. Take for example the command- 
ment which the Saviour was enforcing on the occasion of this text, 
namely, the commandment in regard to forgiveness: "If thy 
brother sin, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him, and if he 
sin against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn 
again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him." How 
sublime, how holy, is this great commandment, yet I think I have 
seen Baptists who observe with a pharisaical strictness all of the 
commandments about the ordinances and yet come right into God's 
house and go through a cold, heartless ceremony, pretending to 
worship, when their hearts are so filled with personal bitterness and 
enmity, and strife and hate, that even Satan himself, if he should 
emerge from the very pit with the fumes of hell upon his garments, 
could have scarcely been more diabolical. "Even so ye also when ye 
shall have done all the thino-s that are commanded." 



284 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 



Ill 

The third law of service contained in the text is that the servant 
mnst alwaj^s possess and be possessed by a spirit of meekness and 
humility. Pride is one of the arch enemies of the human heart. 
And yet, sad to say, pride finds a hospitable welcome in the heart. 
It is pride that keeps many a soul away from Christ. It is pride 
that comes into the heart even of the Christian and vitiates his 
service, and, strange as it may seem, there is such a thing as being 
proud even of our service. We have a class of members that are to 
be found almost in every church of whom this is true. They are 
many times the very best members to be found in the chu.rch. Yet 
there is a certain air of importance about them that marks them as 
lacking in that quiet, gentle, unobtrusive grace — humility. If you 
sit over in one corner and watch them as they come in, you will 
discover that they walk down the isle in a manner that says plainly, 
"I am Deacon Im^portant,'' or "Mrs. Trustworthy." "I will have 
you understand that I am one of the pillars of this church; I am 
always present; I always contribute.'^ It reminds me of the hard- 
shell brother of whom I once heard. He was down washing his 
brother's feet. Glancing back at the congregation he said, "Well, 
brethren, there is one thing we can be proud of ; it is our humility." 
I do not know whether your fight has been the same as mine, but 
I judge we are all much alike in this regard as in others ; and if so, 
you have had many times to gather all of your best strength and 
energy and in one mighty effort fell self and put your foot upon 
his neck, saying to him, "Down, away, let Christ, and Christ only, 
be exalted." See this servant. He comes in from the field, where 
he has been plowing or keeping sheep. His garments are torn with 
the briars and brush and covered with the dust of the field. The 
master gives him commandment; the servant obeys. The meal is 
over. Imagine the servant saying to his master, "See how I have 
obeyed ; are you not going to thank me ; are you not going to show 
me any honor or respect; are you not going to exalt me above my 
fellow-servants ?" The master would turn upon him, saying, "Ser- 



FOUR FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. 285 

vant, what do you nieaii ?"' or rather, "Slave, what do 3^0'U mean ?" 
for the word is really slave. "What do I own you and feed you 
for, but to do my bidding ? You deserve no special honor or thanks 
for keeping my words. It would have been a great disgrace to you 
if you had not have kept them." So it is with the bond servants of 
Jesus Christ. We owe him everything, and when we shall have 
rendered all possible service there is no room for vanity. Even if 
we obey to perfection, both in letter and spirit, every command- 
ment that he has ever given, we must not for a moment allow a 
feeling of pride or self-conceit to enter into our hearts. It is hard 
to do, and yet we must thrust our lips into the dust and send up a 
muffled cry, saying, "We are unprofitable servants." Of course, I 
speak from; the servant's point of view., I would not intimate for a 
moment that God does not reward righteousness. Indeed, his bene- 
dictions, sweeter than the dews of Hermon, more precious than the 
ointment upon Aaron's beard, rest upon every act of faithfulness 
and devotion to him. ISTo deed of obedience or righteousness can 
ever go without his notice and reward. Yet how utterly unworthy 
and unprofitable we are. Even the best of us make a poor out 
at serving him. 

IV 

The fourth and last law of service given us in the text is that no 
servant at any time, under any circumstances or by any sort of 
effort, can do any more than duty. The Papal church holds a doc- 
trine kno\\Ti as Supererogation. Eather a big word, but it means 
simply this : That by extraordinary efi^ort one may do to-day more 
than duty requires. This excess of service, this surplus of righteous- 
ness, is set down to the credit of all the saints of all the ages, or, to 
use the Eoman term, to the credit of the "Holy Mother Catholic 
Church." 

ISTow, on the morrow if this one, or any one else, wishes to leave 
off righteousness or even to go into sin he has only to come to the 
priest and pay him money, in response to which the priest checks on 
this reserve fund of righteousness and sells him an indulgence. He 
may then go into any kind of sin and vice and it is all right, because 



286 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

he or some one else has at some time done more than duty. It is 
difficult for us to see how this doctrine in all of its hideous deform- 
ity could be believed by any thinking individual, yet it is believed 
by a large per cent, of the so-called Christians of this world. It is 
here stated not so much for the purpose of combating it, as held by 
Papists, as for the purpose of indicating how, so far as our deeds are 
concerned, it has permeated nearly all Christendom, and to warn 
you against practicing the doctrine in modified form withou.t know- 
ing of its existence. How many of you are excusing yourselves to- 
day from the faithful and diligent performance of duty because, 
forsooth, you did something yesterday? 

The pastor comes to you and appeals to you to come to church 
more regularly, and you say either to him or yourself : '^'Well, last 
year I attended regularly and faithfully." But in the name of com- 
mon sense and of high Heaven, I ask you, what has that to do with 
this ? Or he asks you to contribute to the support of the church or 
to missions and you say, "Well, I gave so and so." Suppose you did; 
has not God fed you and clothed you and given you the bounties of 
his hand ever since that time ? Has he not said as he prospers you 
so you shall give? Does not this bring an ever present duty. If 
you gave at one time, that was only your duty. It cannot in any 
sense affect the duty of the present or relieve you from the binding 
obligation to give now. 

I went once to my Sunday-school superintendent, who was a fine 
young fellow, and said to him: "John, I wish you would come to 
the Sunday night services. We are trying to make them evange- 
listic in character. ^N'early every night persons are requesting 
prayer, meeting the pastor in his study, and confessing Christ. I 
wish you would give me the help and inspiration of your presence 
and prayers." He said to me : "Well, now really I think I have a 
perfect right to be excused from the Sunday night service." I said : 
"On what ground?" His answer was, "Well, you know I am al- 
ways at Sunday school and the Sunday morning service, and I think 
for social reasons and other things that I am perfectly free at night 
to go to other churches." Excellent man and Christian as he was, 
he was ignorantly and unscripturally supposing that the perform- 



rOUR FUXDAIMEXTAL LAWS OF CHEISTIAX SERVICE. 287 

ance of common duty on one occasion could relieve him on another ; 
and he is only a t^-pe. This has grown and grown until, as some- 
body has aptly said, our churches are almost made up of "Has 
beens'^ or "Use to bes/^ Oh, ye redeemed men, redeemed of the 
Lord, redeemed in the blood of Christ, I warn you, I charge you, it 
matters not what ye have done in the past, ye have done no more 
than duty. Even though ye may have kept every commandment, 
though ye may have scaled up into the very heights of heaven and 
kept that sublimest of all the commandments, "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy might," and even though ye may have kept that other, that 
is like unto it, and scarcely less sublime, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself," even though ye may have lived a life so intense that 
your very heart-strings have almost burst in the performance of 
Christian duty, still you have done no more than is required of you. 
Hear this text : "We have done that which it was our duty to do." 
The manifest meaning is only that which it was our duty to do. 

This law acts also in another direction. Many of us are sitting 
in idleness and neglect to-day, indulging the delusive hope that we 
shall be able to make it up to-morrow. To-morrow will be crowded 
with care, pregnant with possibilities, and its duties will be all that 
you can possibly meet. jSTo man has ever yet retrieved a lost oppor- 
tunity or redeemed a squandered moment or been able to remove 
one single blot on the page of yesterday by any sort of effort or sac- 
rifice to-day. When the sun drops out of sight beyond the western 
hills the great iron gate of time drops and its great bolts shoot into 
the sockets. Eealizing the shortcomings and the neglect and sin 
of the past, you may rush frantically to it and knock and knock, 
calling out in your anguish, "Open! open! open!" The keeper 
standing within answers in solemn and sepulchral tone: "This 
gate is locked; nor man, nor angel, nor God himself can open it 
that you may come back to change one word or deed." Dismiss, 
I beg you, my brethren, dismiss forever from your hearts the blight- 
ing dream, the blasting hope, that you can ever make up to-mor- 
row what you lose to-day. "We have done only that which it was 
our duty to do" must be the confession and frank acknowledsrment 



288 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

of the angels themselves. It must likewise be your confession, even 
if from the day of your conversion until the day of your death you 
live every moment a life of the most intense and devout perform- 
ance of Christian duty. 

"Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all the things/^ all 
the things "that are commanded you, say, '^We are unprofitable 
servants ; we have done that which it was our duty to do.^ '' All 
service must be rendered according to the commandments; our 
service should have a regard for all of the commandments; in all 
of our service we must be meek and humble; no servant under any 
conditions or by any effort can do more than his duty. 



JOHX O'BRIEN RUST was born in Hopkinsville, Ky., September 6, 
1859. His father, Prof. J. W. Rust, was one of the best known Baptist lay- 
men in the South. He was a teacher of very great ability, and for many 
years a distinguished college president. The subject of this sketch graduated 
at Bethel College, Russellville, Ivy., in 1881, afterwards taking a law course 
at the University of Virginia. Returning home, Mr. Rust accepted college 
work for three years, and then became an active newspaper man, doing edi- 
torial wqrk for the secular press for a period of four years. In 1888 he 
felt strongly a long heard call to enter the ministry, and in the fall of 1889 
be began his studies, in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louis- 
ville, Ky., continuing through three yearis. During his stay at the seminary 
Mr. Rust preached all over Kentucky as supply for the churches, spending 
one entire summer in this capacity at Hopkinsville, and another with the 
McFerran Memorial Church of Louisville. Before quitting the seminary a 
call was accepted to the Bardstown, Ky., church, where he served four and 
a half years, resigning to come to the Edgefield Baptist Church at Nashville, 
Tenn., his present charge. During his ministerial life Mr. Rust has been 
called on for special work all over the country, having delivered addresses 
before conventions and colleges and on other occasionis in nearly all of the 
cities of the middle States, besides doing summer supply work in the East. 
In June, 1900, the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Bethel Col- 
lege, and the degree of LL.D. by the Southwestern Baptist University, Jack- 
son, Tenn. 

To the editor of this volume Dr. J. B. Ha'wthorne writes these words : 
"The consensus of opinion among those who have had frequent opportu- 
nities of hearing Dr. John 0. Rust is that he is the most brilliant man in 
the Southern Baptist pulpit. He represents a style of oratory that is rare 
in this generation. In many respects he reminds one of the late Henry W. 
Grady. The powers most conspicuous in his sermons and addresses are 
those of imagination and passion. Some of his flights are Miltonic. He 
lifts the auditor into empyrean heights, Avhere the stars dazzle and the 
angels sing. He quivers with emotion, and communicates the great im- 
pulses of his own heart to the hearts of his hearers. His genius and culture 
are thoroughly consecrated to the work of the Christian ministry. The 
preaching of no Southern pastor is more effective in the conversion of souls." 
(289) 




T. i. i.. LL i. 



5, L^D Li^Dj, 



SEEIN"G THE UNSEEX. 291 

XXIY 
SEEING THE UNSEEN 



By John O'Brien Eust, D. D., LL. D., 

Tennessee 

"WMle we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; bnt the things which 
are not seen are eternal."— II. Cor. 4 : 18. 

DOTHAN was a city set on a Mil, whose sloping sides were bro- 
caded with waving fields andj fringed with green groves. One 
morning the villagers awoke to discover that the city was sur- 
rounded by Syrian soldiers. Benhadad had come to capture 
Elisha. The prophet's servant runs to him with the alarming news 
and exclaims : "Alas, my master, how shall we do ?" The old man 
saw something which the young man did not see, and answers with 
composure : "Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they 
that are with them." Then he prayed and the young man's eyes 
were opened on the spiritual world. Standing between Elisha and 
his enemies on the hillsides about that city were "horses and 
chariots of fire," battalions of armored angels with shields uplifted 
and swords aflame, ready to move upon that human army at the 
clarion call of the prophet's prayer. Hear four preliminary re- 
marks, viz. : 

{a) There are two worlds. The seen is this present, visible, tan- 
gible, material world addressing the mind of man through the broad 
avenues of the bodily senses; apprehended by the cunning intel- 
lectuality of the eye, the exquisite emotionality of the ear, the 
subtle chemistry of taste and smell, and the sensitive mechanism of 
touch. The unseen is the present, invisible, intangible, spiritual 
world, addressing the mind of man through his spiritual faculties ; 
discovered by the fine perceptions of faith, apprehended by the deep 



292 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

intuitions of the soul, and gazed upon through the clear, glorifying 
vision of Christian hope. These two worlds, the seen and the un- 
seen, are intertwined like the strands of a rope, cohorts of Syrians 
there, legions of angels here; the seen, visible like this audience; 
the unseen, invisible like that celestial company which has come 
from the courts of glory to worship with us to-day. 

{!)) Both of these worlds are real. God, and angels, and the 
unseen universe are vast realities. Because you cannot see a thing 
is no reason why it does not exist. Faith is the conviction of the 
reality of the invisible. And this world, and the people, and things 
in it are realities. The idealist who says that matter is a m3^th is 
as foolish as the materialist who says that there is nothing but mat- 
ter. Christianity is the champion of reality; it plants its feet on 
facts and proclaims the existence of two real worlds, the one seen, 
the other unseen. 

(c) AVhile both worlds are real, the unseen is the more im- 
portant. Angels are of more consequence than Syrians. Those 
soldiers are long since sleeping in the sod beneath the shadow of 
their shields, but the angels have lived on in undiminished power. 
When rocky, sea-girt Patmos shall have crumbled into dust, the 
white-towered city which John saw from those lone heights will 
be enduring in its glory. God is more sovereign than man. Soul 
is more important than body, xily eternal life in the skies is of im- 
mensely more consequence than my temporary tent-life on earth. 
To admit the reality of these two worlds is to concede superiority 
to the unseen. 

(d) It is a sad fact, however, that the seen, though less im- 
portant, has more of a mastery over us than the unseen. The visi- 
ble, tangible, and material influence us more than the invisible, in- 
tangible, and spiritual. The here and now are more potent than 
the tliere and then. We are more obsequious to soldiers than to 
angels. In our lone exiles we look more confidently to some Eome 
of power for help than to that Holy City of grace above the blue 
dome of the visible. In our natural state we are the slaves of the 
inferior. And now the text with trumpet peal calls on us to rev- 
erence the superior: "Look not at the things which are seen, but 



SEEING THE UXSEEX. 293 

at the thin^ which are not seen^'' (II. Cor. 4: 18). This is God's 
voice commanding ns to renounce the mastery of the temporal, and 
to swear allegiance to the eternal. \ 

I. TTHAT AEE SEEX THIXGS 

Seen things are things which you can see. Bnt this is not the 
exact description of our text; it says that seen things are tempo- 
rary. All those things that are ephemeral, which pass away, which 
perish, belong to the seen world. Whatever is visible perishes. 
These things are real and potent while they last; their one con- 
spicuous, characteristic mark is they do not endnre. If we will 
search the Scriptures, we wiU find that seen things fall into two 
classes, viz. : 

1. The world, for we read, ^'The world passes awar' (1 John 
2 : 17). We fearfully reduce the meaning of this term in its Bible 
uses. What is the world? There is crowded into this little word 
all there is of this present vast visible order of things. 

(1). What we call nature is only a part of the world. The valley 
mist lifted by the hands of the morning light, and torn and tossed 
up into fleecy, vanishing nothingness ; the velvet violet that sleeps 
on the warm breast of some sweet summer day: the aurora's flush, 
the insubstantial clouds, and the solid mountains — aU these are bom 
to die; they will pass away, and so they belong to the seen. 

(2). And then we apply the term world to a certain class of 
human actions; we call such conduct worldly and such people 
worldlings. In its familiar usage there is a miserable narrowing of 
the meaning of this term. We commonly apply it to a few unpopu- 
lar vices. To some people worldliness is restricted to a revolver, 
rum, a deck of cards, a ball-room, and the theatre. These are bad, 
desperately bad, but there is other, and perhaps worse, worldliness 
for us to consider. Some people too cold and close for these de- 
grading pleasures prate about the wickedness of the abandoned, 
while they themselves are in closer touch with common clay than 
those whom they abuse. Cold cupidity, hoarding its gold; cruel 
ambition, climbing to its throne on the ruin of others; polished 
moraUty, catering to a depraved sestheticism ; supercilious culture. 



294 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

doing court to voluptuous vanity, all these are desperately worldly 
and sometimes viciously wicked. I have seen some gloomy by 
nature, or embittered by the disappointments of life, hate the chaste 
Joys of hale and hearty piety v/ith envenomed malice. That sour 
severity which would curse a rose and crucify a smile is worldliness 
gone into satanism. 

(3) . And this word world is not yet empty of its meaning. Many 
of the dominant sentiments and tastes of life are ephemeral; they 
pass away. All that we can group under ^^the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2: 16) is of the 
world. All the vast accumulation of error in ethics and aesthetics; 
the mis-educations and false tastes of art; the vagaries of 
philosophy; the fallacies of statecraft; the huge blunderings of 
common sense — all these which are of the world and for the world 
are as mortal as the circumstances which gave them birth, and they 
will pass away. They may be beautiful as the tonic mist that rises 
from the trembling harp-strings, but as that vanishes into un- 
fathomed silence, so these things will perish with their using. They 
liave no permanent existence outside of their reflex action on the 
immortal soul of man; they will exist, not in themselves, only in 
their effects. How very much will cease to be when the world passes 
away amazes us ; and all of this belongs to the seen. 

2. The "outer man" (2 Cor. 4: 16) is the Scripture phrase that 
designates the second class of seen things, for we read "the outer 
man perishes." The "world" and the "outer man" exhaust the cate- 
gory of the seen. We cannot draw a clear line between these two 
groups, because the outer man describes man in his devotedness to 
the world, man in his carnal nature living as though there were no 
God, and loving this life as though there were no life beyond the 
grave. Scripture calls this life the "outer man," and says it will 
perish. It refers not merely to man's body, for we see that is 
failing, but to man's soul in its devotedness to this world. This 
outer man, in his vices or his virtues, in his indulgences or 
restraints, in his follies or ambitions, in his failures or 
achievements, in his sorrows or joys, will pass away. The 
good goes with the bad. Divinest music goes arm in arm with 



SEEING THE UNSEEN". 295 

sad, discordant misery cloaked and hooded; art and aesthetics walk 
with evil all befouled and wretched; stately philosophy, withered 
and worn, is companion to enfeebled folly, sad for once; kingly 
dignity afoot o'ertakes ragged povert}^ on the way, and they go 
on together into the grave. All this present order is moving on 
into decay. All that is temporal and material and all the loves and 
lusts that rest on these will perish. The temporal world appeals 
only to the temporary in man, and both will pass away, and to- 
gether they make up the seen world. The outer man has no perma- 
nent existence in himself. He will live only as he affects the im- 
mortal inner man. His life may mar the glory or make the gloom 
of the inner man, bnt he himself will perish. 

II. THE NATUKE OF SEEN THINGS 

Onr text has nothing to say about the moral quality of seen 
things; it simply remarks that they are perishing. It does not say 
whether they are good or bad. As a matter of fact, seen things, 
whether in the world or in the outer man, are both good and bad. 
But the bad of seen things is not the worst bad, nor is the good of 
seen things the best good. It is worse to sin against the unseen 
than against the seen; and it is more blessed to serve the unseen 
than the seen. Better doubt your eyes than your faith. Better 
listen to God than to men. Better love heaven than earth. Better 
wrong your temporal than your eternal interests. Better sacrifice 
your body than your soul. Better practice unpopular piety than 
fashionable moralit}^ Better pray than reason. Better give than 
hoard. Better love than hate. It is vastly better to train the im- 
mortal inner man in his divine aptitudes for the unseen and spirit- 
ual than to grow the stalwart outer man strong in his loves for the 
seen and the material. And yet we must remember that there is 
good as well as bad in these seen things. 

The only charge our text brings against seen things is that 
they are temporary. The Bible nowhere charges the world 
with being bad; it simply says that it is perishing. Fix this 
thought in your mind. There is immense power in this idea. 



296 THE AMEBIC AN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Men do not care if the world is bad; they think it is so valu- 
able they want it anyhow., If you can convince them that the 
world is no account, they will give it up, and this is what the Bible 
is after in telling us that the world is perishable instead of bad. 
The man who wants the earth is not so v/icked as foolish. If there 
is any bad, it is in him, and not in the earth. Hell will be to such a 
man more an asylum than a penitentiary. ISTone of us have ever 
yet realized how insane sin is. If the world is going to perish, we 
don^t want it; it is not worth having, and we will begin to seek a 
world that will last. That is what the Scripture says. "The world 
passes away"; "the outer man perishes." A triumphal procession 
was entering Kome. The conqueror rode at the head of his army 
amidst the shouts of his devoted people. Some one asked him if 
there was anything lacking. "Yes," he answered, "continuance." 
That is what this world lacks, continuance. "The pageant of this 
world passeth av/ay," and carries down in the wreck the dearest 
loves of our hearts, which we have given to it. 

III. HOW TO TREAT SEEN THINGS 

Our text says "Look not." This means not to take aim like a 
gunner, or an archer, sights at his target. We are not forbidden to 
look at these things at all, but not to look at them too much. We 
must bestow a proper regard upon this world, but not to give con- 
suming attention to it. 

1. We must not underestimate the seen; it is real, and of some 
value. Jesus does not wish his people to become sour sescetics. One 
time I visited Gethsemane, the monastery of the Trappist monks, 
the silent brotherhood, in Nelson county, Ky. It is an old grid- 
iron building on a mound in a grove of English elms in the centre 
of a saucer-shaped valley midst a circling coronal of hills., It was 
autumn. It was carnival week in the woods, and the trees were 
aflame in crimson, scarlet, and gold. The sky was clear, and the 
little valley was flooded to the brim with the glorious sunlight. I 
asked the monk who conducted me through the building if the scene 
was not beautiful ? "Ah ! no," he said, "there is nothing beautiful 



SEEING THE UNSEEN. 297 

in this world/^ That was a lie. God rose early that morning and 
clothed the earth in all the gorgeous beauty of his glory to delight 
his children, and they should see it and rejoice in it. Eevelation 
returns no indictment against the lily or the sunbeam. We should 
not despise the rose of dawn, the noon-day's splendor, the tremu- 
lous glory of the gloaming, the evening star, nor the calm majesty 
of the night. All these belong to the seen, and they are to be loved. 

The fact is, if we look closer at seen things sometimes, we get a 
great blessing. We can look through nature up to nature's God; 
and sometimes even human nature can tell us of divinity. For 
thirty years I heard Beethoven's sonatas as a stupid jumble of 
sounds, until one day a friend opened those rh}i;lmiic philosophies 
to me. Her fair hands followed the dip and toss of the ivory waves 
of that bright melodic sea until I saw the vision and heard the 
message of these great song-sermons. Was I wrong to listen to this 
teacher? All that is good in the deeds and thoughts of men we 
should justly regard. The great virtues and pure ideas of the 
world tell us of God, and they will bless us if we practice them. 

And so it is not wrong for us to follow our occupations in this 
world. Eeligion never was intended to make us hate sweat. There 
is nothing unreligious in honorable secular labor. It is our duty to 
work and to have in order that we may give Therefore we should 
go into the fields and marts, not into a cave. We are to be separate 
from the world, but that does not mean for us to quit work and to 
exclude ourselves from society. Our peculiarity should be to have 
a bigness above our holdings. Live among men and do a man's 
part as the child of your heavenly Father, and God will bless you. 

2. We should not overestimate the seen. Where there is one who 
gives too little attention to seen things, there are ten thousand who 
give too much attention to them. This generation is in no danger 
of turning into monks. The habitual pleasure-seeker is worse than 
the sour-faced sescetic. The young lady who gives all her time to 
fashions and society, and the young man who is a moral, greedy, 
money-maker is as much overestimating the world as the abandoned 
and debauched. There is no use to make comparisons, for the ISTew 
Testament puts these two groups into one class and declares that the 



298 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

lustful and the miserly, the idler and' the covetous are all one. 
I saw a young woman in an insane asylum dressing from morning 
till night, parading her finery before the vacant eyes of those 
wretched inmates. Not more insane was she than those who give 
all their time and care to this earthly life and fail to prepare them- 
selves for the life to come. 

It is almost as sad to give exclusive devotion to even the good in 
this fading world as to the bad. I had better stop my ears to 
Beethoven and never hear his songs again rather than that I should 
listen altogether to him and his companions and fail to hear the 
singing of those choirs invisible which praise God day and night 
before his throne. It were better that I should close my eyes for- 
ever to flowery vale and sun-crested mountains, if they are to hold 
my vision from seeing the holy city and the heavenly home. I 
should never again listen to men talk, it matters not how wise their 
message, if hearing them forbids me to listen to God's voice in his 
holy word. It is not enough to say a thing is harmless; if it is 
between you and the unseen world, it is your fatal enemy. If we 
are to neglect totally either world, let it be the world of the perish- 
ing seen things. Let us set our minds on things above, and use the 
seen only to help us to the unseen. You overestimate the seen when- 
ever you think more of it than you do of the unseen. 

3. The way we should treat seen things is clearly stated in 1 Cor. 
7 : 31 : "Use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion (pageant) 
of this world passeth away.^^ We should master this world and 
make it serve us as a slave to help us on to the world to come. If 
we do not conquer the world, it will conquer us. Either you must 
be master and the world slave, or the world will be master and you 
the slave. If you love this world, it will overcome you. The way to 
overcome it is to love the other world. Now, faith is "the victory 
that overcometh the world" (1 Jolin 5:4). The way to master seen 
things so you can make pure and profitable use of them is to have 
an abiding confidence in unseen things. 

And just here is the problem of life. It is hard to master this 
world. I begin life in this world, and in the outer man. First that 
which is natural. My human nature early learns to love the nature 



SEEING THE UNSEEN. 299 

of this world. The dominant sentiments about me educate me in 
the desires and ambitions for seen things, and I soon find my opin- 
ions and convictions formed in entire harmony with my carnal 
miad. Xow a text like this commanding me to lift up my soul 
and believe in and love the invisible and spiritual comes to me with 
a shock. It is revolutionary. It plunges me into a desperate 
struggle with myself, and the war is on between the weak powers of 
my soul and the stalwart passions of my flesh. Earth is so near 
and so necessary, and the outer man is so strong, while heaven is so 
distant and remote, and the inner man so feeble, that many a soul 
has said no to the high call of this text, and has gone marching on 
in the dying pageant of the world. Just here is the problem of life. 
No man will say yes to our text and set his heart on things above 
unless he first fixes a firm faith in God and has in his heart as- 
surance of the sublime realities of the unseen universe. God wiU 
help you to that faith. Open your hearts to receive him and cry 
out for him to come in to abide with you. One time a lady went to 
see an aged friend who was poor and blind and bed-ridden. They 
had not seen each other for a lons^ time. When she entered the 
room the old lady said: "Come here, my child; I cannot see you. 
Is that the old voice ? I do not know. Come here and let me feel 
your hair and brow and let me kiss jo\i" And the dear old woman 
began to weep as she kissed her, and exclaimed: "Oh! I see yon 
now; it is my sweet friend come to love me again." Her tears 
washed the windows of her eyes, and her soul could see her beloved 
again. Oh, brother! weep; weep over the idle, useless years yon 
have loved this failing world and neglected God and jout home on 
high. Through the lense of a penitent tear you can see God. One 
glimpse of his gracious love will redeem you, one look at heaven's 
glory will win you from earth's grossness. The moment you do this 
God will be your father, and your conqueror soul will have this 
servile world at its feet. Then you can "use it as not abusing it.'^ 
Then you can make its best things prosper you on your journey 
home, and as a master you can make its ^light afflictions" work out 
for you an "eternal weight of glory." Then the perishing of the 
outer man will day by day renew the inner man. Have faith in 
God and you have conquered the world. 



300 THE AMEKICAIs^ BAPTIST PULPIT. 

God will help you in the spiritual life. All the Holy Trinity will 
come to your aid. One day Eubenstein played the ^'Erl King" in a 
New York concert hall. The pianist had just received welcome 
letters from his wife and children from far across the sea, and his 
soul had melted. He had a dual inspiration. Goethe wrote the 
poem, Schubert composed the melod}^, and Liszt transcribed it for 
the piano; and all three were now speaking through Eubenstein, 
and the voices of his absent loved ones were cheering him on. Just 
so, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will speak through a life 
consecrated to the unseen and make it a melody divine. Above this 
low roof of blue sky such a soul will see the city of God, and loved 
ones will shout their greetings through dim distances and make 
ready for the meeting when you come home at last. All the sacred 
loves and hopes of the heart teach us to believe in the vmseen. 
Blessed is the man who can see the invisible. Salvation is to love 
God more than this world. 

" There's heaven above, and night by night 

I look right through its gorgeous roof; 
No suns and moons though e'er so bright 

Avail to stop me; splendor-proof 
I keep the broods of stars aloof; 

For I intend to get to God, 
For 'tis to God I speed so fast, 

For in God's breast, my own abode. 
Those shoals of dazzling glory passed, 

I lay my spirit down at last." 



JOSEPH SA^IUEL MURROW, wlien a student in Mercer Univerisity, 
Georgia, in 1857, was providentially directed to engage in mission work 
among the Indians of Indian Territory, then a country inhabited by Indians 
only. After a long and tedious journey, he reached the Territory in. No- 
vember, 1857. He found the Indians with comfortable houses, good farms, 
and an abundance of cattle and ponies, but many of them did not wish to 
know of the Avhite man's God. Dr. Murrow possesseiS qualifications, of mind 
and heart peculiarly adapted for work among full-blood Indians, and soon 
they recognized in him a true friend, a wise counselor, and an active leader. 
They took him into their hearts, and for forty-four years have loved and 
trusted him as they have few other white men. Up to 1861 Dr. Murrow 
Avorked among the bands of Muskogees that were then imfriendly to Chris- 
tianity. His work was hard, his experiences trying, his sufferings severe, 
but as he lifted up Jesus the enmity of the Indians was overcome and they 
became friends and believers. Stations were opened, churches organized, 
and the desert was blossoming as the rose. But, alas ! the terrible civil war 
came on. The country was left a wilderness. At the request of the Semi- 
noles he was appointed their agent by the Confederate Government at Rich- 
mond, and later was commissioned to contract for and furnish provisions to 
thousands of destitute Indian women, children, and old men who were 
refugees on the Texas border. This he did for nearly three years. During 
those years he took his churches into the refugee camps and baptized over 
two hundred converts. After the war he visited all parts of the Choctaw, 
Muskogee, and Seminole nations, reorganized the churches, encouraged the 
Indians to rebuild their houses, fence their farms, re-establish schools, and 
strive to become again a prosperous and happy people. He inaugurated 
and for years carried forward the work among the Blanket Indians now in 
Oklahoma. Together with Prof. A. C. Bacone and Rev. D. Rogers he founded 
Indian University, the Baptist college of the Territory. He established the 
Baptist Academy of x4toka, a school that has brought inestimable good to 
the Indian children of the Choctaw nation. On June 20, 1888, Dr. Murrow 
married Miss Kathrina L. EUett, who has been in Indian Territory as a 
general missionary of the Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society of Chi- 
cago for the past nineteen years. She travels all over the Territory with 
her husband, holding women's and children's meetings, organizing woman's 
missionary societies, mission bands, and industrial schools. She is also an 
active Woman's Christian Temperance Union worker and a good house- 
keeper. Dr. Murrow has baptized over eighteen hundred people, organized 
over sixty churches, ordained as many pastors, and aided in the building of 
over seventy church houses, nearly all of which work has been for the In- 
dians. Before he closes his work in this world his desire is to establish an 
orphan school exclusively for Indian children of all tribes, where they may 
be given a common-school education, trained in manual labor, and taught 
morality and Christianity, that they may be trained to become self-support- 
ing, useful citizens, and, with God's blessing, faithful servants of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
(301) 



LABOR AXD KETVAED. 303 

XXY 

LABOE AXD EEWAED * 



By Joseph Samuel Mueeow^ D. D., 
Indian Territor}^ 

"Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serring the Lord." — Eoni. 12 : 11. 

THIS text is a practical one. It is for everY-day use. 
The Bible is a wonderful book. It teaches ns how to live 
in this world and in the world to come. 

The first part of the text tells Christians that they mnst not be 
lazy, neither in secular nor religions work. My Cherokee brethren 
and sisters, I desire to apply this directly to yon. Yon have a good 
country. Mnch of yonr land is rich. Yon are jealons of yonr right 
to this land. Yon claim that it is yonrs by treaty, and that yon do 
not wish to part with it. This is all trne. Bnt yonr possession of 
this land is not the most valnable thing abont it. Yonr possession 
will not do yon nor yonr families any good nnless yon nse the land 
profitably. Yonr families cannot eat it or clothe themselves with 
it. There are riches in the land that hard labor only will bring ont. 
Corn and wheat and oats and cotton and a great many other good 
things are in the land. It mnst be cnltivated to produce these use- 
ful fruits. If you secure the largest and best crops, you must not 
be "slothful in business." All Christian farmers should have larger 
fields and raise better crops than those who are not Christians. 
The Bible says that godliness or Christianity is "profitable unto all 
things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is 
to come." 



*A sermon preached to full blood-Indians at the Cherokee Baptist Association 
in Indian Territory. It was interpreted by Rev. A. L. Lacie, a native Cherokee 
preacher. The interpretation into any of these Indian languages requires twice 
the time of the English. Each sentence must be concisely expressed, in plain 
simple English, easily understood and easily interpreted. 



304 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. ^ , 

And the text is for you also, sisters. You who are Christians 
should be better housekeepers, wives, miothers, women, because of 
your Christianity. An old Christian woman among the Kiowas 
once said : "Before I became a Jesus woman I was lazy and did not 
keep my tepee clean. Now I work hard all day long. I try to 
keep everything about me clean. Sometimes when I start to Jesus^ 
house on Jesus' day I wonder if my sheet is clean, for, you see, I am 
half blind. But one thing I know : that my heart is clean, because 
Jesus washed it.'^ A clean heart ought to bring forth the fruits 
of clean thoughts, a clean body, a clean house, clean children. 

The Bible says, "A^Tiether therefore ye eat or drinl^, or whatsoever 
ye do, do all to the glory of God." Christians, therefore, should 
plough and raise stock and keep house for God's glory. This digni- 
fies labor and makes it honorable. The blanket Indian men used to 
say that it was unmanly for men to work. Since many of them 
have become Christians they see the folly of their old ways. They 
now live in houses instead of tepees. They have farms and work 
hard and raise crops instead of riding around over the prairies. 
What has made this change ? Christianity. It is a disgrace not to 
work. Our Lord likes to see his people have good homes. He likes 
to see those homes well kept, with well-cooked food and well-trained 
children. 

And while the Bible teaches us to be industrious and to make all 
the property we can, it also teaches us to save what we make. After 
Jesus had fed a great multitude of people he bade his disciples to 
"gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." When we have 
plenty of means we can give more to the Lord's cause. Indian 
Christians are liberal, but they usually have very little to give. 
They should be more industrious and saving. Then they will have 
more to give to their pastors and to all church work. I have often 
advised my Indian brethren to set aside one-tenth of all they make 
and save as God's part of their property. I advise you to-day to 
do this. Take God into partnership in all your work. Try to 
work as hard as he does. He gives rain and sunshine, health and 
strength. This is more than you can do, even if you do your best. 
God is willing for you to have nine parts out of every ten of the 
profits of your farms and homes. 



LABOR A^T) EEWAED. 305 

He is wiliiiLg to receive but one part. Is he not wonderfully good 
and generous ? If you will pay one-tenth of aU you make to the 
Lord, he will bless you abundantly in your property and in your 
hearts. 

But this text not only instructs Christians to be diligent in secu- 
lar affairs, but in religious work also. The world has no use for a 
lazy man. God has no use for a lazy Christian. You who are 
Christians have believed in Jesus. He saved you from your sins and 
gave you a title to eternal life. That title, like your land, is a val- 
uable possession. But also like your land, the possession of salva- 
tion is not the most valuable thing about it. There are rich fruits 
iu salvation that only hard labor will bring out. Great happiness 
and joy and peace and many other good things are in Christianity. 
Of course, you understand that we do not work for G^ to earn sal- 
vation. We work because we are saved. Salvation is given freely 
by Christ. You trusted and believed ui Christ, and he took your 
sinfulness upon himself and gave to you his righteousness and 
eternal Kf e. You belong to Christ. ''Ye are not your own, ye are 
bought with a price, therefore glorify God ia your bodies and in 
your spirits, which are his.'' Since we belong to God, we are his 
servants. TVe must work for him. In working for G^d we benefit 
both ourselves and others. Our hearts are like fields of rich land. 
When we were converted the Holy Spirit broke up our hearts and 
sowed good seed therein. With the help of the Holy Spirit we must 
cultivate this good seed. Intemperance, impurity, and aU other 
bad, wicked weeds and briars must not be allowed to grow. The 
harvest that the owner vrants is good thoughts, good words, good 
works. It will require hard work' on our part to produce this 
harv^t, but it will repay us well. And our Lord demands that we 
work for others also. There are unsaved persons in many of your 
famili^. Many of your neighbors are unsaved. There are whole 
tribes of your own race iu the W^t who greatly need the gospel. 
There are millions of people all over the world who know nothing 
of Jesus. 

Dear Cherokee brethren, there is large spiritual work for you to 
do. Let me beseech vou not to be slothful in this business. In the 



306 THE AMEBIC AN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

book of Daniel the Bible tells us that "They that turn many to 
righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." Do you 
desire this precious promise? David in the book of Psalms says, 
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall 
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with 
him." If you desire to take to Jesus in heaven a large harvest of 
good works and of souls saved by him through you, you mu.st not be 
slothful about your Lord's business. When a merchant has a great 
deal of money in a bank he can buy all the goods he needs. There is 
a rich bank in the Bible for all who desire to work for Jesus. It 
is in II. Cor. 9:8: "And God' is able to make all grace abound 
toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may 
abound to all good works." I trust you will go to this bank every 
day this year and come to the Association next year with a report 
of large work done for Christ. 

I have taken so much time talking about this first part of our 
text that I must be very brief on the other two parts. 



This is the great moving cause that makes a Christian an in- 
dustrious worker for Jesus. If we have our hearts full of 
Jesus, we will have our lives full of him. If our hearts are 
fervent, that is, boiling hot, we shall not be lazy about our Master's 
business. Have you seen a railway train running on its iron road ? 
It would not run at all if there was not a great big boiler full of 
hot water that makes steam, and that steam is strong to make the 
cars run. Get your hearts full of the Holy Spirit, and he will set 
your bodies to work. How may we become fervent in spirit? 
First, by inviting the Holy Spirit into our hearts. And if there 
are things in our hearts that are offensive to the Holy Spirit, we 
must help him put them out. You desire the government at Wash- 
ington to put intruders out of your nation. Be sure that you put 
intruders out of your hearts. Second, pray earnestly and fre- 
quently and with faith for a fervent spirit. You like to grant good 
things to your children. God says he is more willing to grant your 



LABOR AND REWAED. 307 

prayers than you are to bestow good things upon your children. 
Third, read your Cherokee Testaments constantly. Eead a little 
every morning and reflect upon it all the day long. The Bible is 
food and drink to your souls. The Bible and prayer and work will 
keep up the steam. The book of Eevelation describes the members 
of the church at Laodicea : "I know thy works, that thou art neither 
cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So, then, because 
thou art neither cold or hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." 
Brethren, I pray you not to get in such a condition as these people. 
Be active and zealous and fervent in spirit, that God may say, "Well 
done, good and faithful servants; enter thou into the joys of thy 
Lord." 

"'SERVIiSrG THE LOED'^ 

Some people are very diligent about serving themselves. Some 
are active in the service of Satan. Christian people are not to 
serve Satan or themselves. They must serve the Lord, who made 
and redeemed them. When we serve Satan or ourselves we greatly 
injure ourselves and everybody else. When we serve our Lord we 
benefit ourselves, our families, and the world. The service of Christ 
brings blessings. All other service brings injuries. The Lord is a 
kind master. He pays the highest and best wages. He pays happi- 
ness, peace, and joy on earth and in heaven. Satan is a hard master. 
His wages are suffering, sorrow, and death forever. "Choose ye 
this day whom ye will serve." I sincerely pray that, like grand old 
Joshua, you may decide that, "as for me and my house, we will 
serve the Lord." 



THE AMEmCAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXVI 
THE MISSIOIsT SPIEIT * 



By Rev. William M. Andeeson, B. S., 
Oklahoma 

"Thy kingdom come."— Matt. 7 : 10. 

THIS prayer, known as the Lord^s Prayer, is quite comprehen- 
sive. It includes the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood ol 
his children, the source of all our blessings, the forgiveness of 
sins, and the glory of God. In this comprehensive prayer is inserted 
the missionary idea — thy kingdom come. 

I. Notice first the reasonableness of the missionary idea. Think 
a moment how unreasonable it would have been if the Lord had not 
given us a religion whose very soul v*^as "missions. ^^ This principle 
has knit together God^s universe. It abounds in nature. We call 
it growth. The farmer sows his seed. He expects back his seed, 
and more also — some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. One 
day Jesus, illustrating the kingdom, used the words: first the 
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. 

In the commercial world this principle is called business. We 
put out our money and expect a gain, and if we do not get it, we 
are not good business men. We are not satisfied with our standing 
financially. We want gain from our investment. As I said, this is 
the missionary idea, as m.uch as the missionary idea can be ap- 
proached in commercial life. 

In national life we call it expansion. Human beings have always 
been lovers of land. Wherever there has been an opening there has 
also been a rush. Yes, we are lovers of land. We are proud of our 
flag, and would float it over the islands of the seas and over the 



^Annual missionary sermon before the Oklahoma State Convention, 1901. 




urn, WILU^i i. ^KiiiCfl, i, 



WILLIAM M. ANDERSON was born in Rockcastle county, Ky., August 
17, 1867. Soon after his birth his father, Rev. Abija Anderson, moved to 
Madison county, Ky., where he lived until William had grown to manhood. 
He entered Carson and Newman College, Tennessee, in 1889, graduating 
with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1895. The following fall he en- 
tered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. In the 
spring of 1896 he was called to the care of the First Baptist Church of 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a rapidlj^-growing Western town. Under his 
ministry of more than five years the church has had a wonderful growth. 
It has more than doubled in membership, paid off a large church debt, and 
put in a beautiful pipe organ. Large congregations wait on his ministry. 
The church is the strongest Baptist church in Oklahoma. Mr. Anderson is 
held in high esteem by the people of his church and city. He is a preacher 
of rare eloquence and power. His brother. Rev. J. M. Anderson, is now 
pastor of the Baptist Church at Newport, Tenn. 
(310) 



i 



THE MISSIOISr SPIRIT. 311 ' 

nations beyond. We Americans think our language should be the 
language of all peoples, our government a mod-el for all governments, 
and our flag the flag for every land. This is the missionary spirit 
in the national world. 

Once more, by this principle God has developed and is developing 
the human race. Primeval man was not what he was afterwards to 
become. In the earth God hid rich ores, precious metals, and price- 
less stones. Over and above them man walked as king. By appli- 
cation of head, heart, and hand man and nature were to be devel- 
oped toward the ideal. Step by step has God brought forward 
humankind. 

II. Observe, in the second plaace, the essence of the kingdom of 
Jesus Christ. What is it? It is the life-giving power of God. It 
is the sin-cleansing power of Jesus' blood. It is the comforting and 
uplifting power of the Holy Ghost — these forces operating in 
human hearts and lives. 

Sin reigns in the human heart. It hinders the higher progress of 
the soul. The eradication of sin and the destruction of its power 
over the life of men and women is the only hope of the world. But 
how is this achievement to be realized? We cannot legislate sin 
out of the human soul. I believe in law. I believe in law-abiding 
citizenship. Law has its province, yet it is cold, dead, non-progres- 
sive, non-suggestive, and can never reach the seat of sin. I have 
held membership in law and order leagues, in anti-saloon leagues, 
and in other leagues, and have engaged in zealous fights in the 
same, but in each case have left the enemy enraged and stronger, 
and I have retired to my little booth in defeat. Brethren, I have 
about concluded the Lord wants me to declare imto the world a 
soul-saving gospel. 

Not only is effective legislation against sin impossible, but also 
the education of sin out of the soul. We cannot advocate educa- 
tion too strongly, provided it is Christian education. Alas! for 
education without the Christian religion. There cannot be placed 
in a human hand an instrument more dangerous, a weapon more 
suicidal, than an education of the mind with sin left untouched in 
the heart. President Eoosevelt said at a recent meeting of the 



312 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Long Island Bible Society: "We must cultivate the mind, but it 
is not enough only to cultivate the mind. With education of the 
mind must go the spiritual teachings which will make us turn the 
trained intellect to good account. A man whose intellect has been 
educated, while his moral education has been neglected, is only the 
more dangerous to the community, because of the exceptional 
poY>^ers which he has acquired. Surely, v/hat I am saying needs no 
proof." 

To my mind, without any question the heart controls the v^hole 
life. The heart tears reason from the throne and chokes conscience 
unto death. We are still under the shadow of the Buffalo tragedy. 
How could a sane man murderously take the life of such an able 
statesman, of such a manly man, of such a Christian gentleman, as 
William McKinley? It surely was against his reason. JN'ever was 
there a more unreasonable crime committed. Did not the assassin 
know that to take the life of our President would make our nation 
stronger? Did he not know that he was hazarding his own life? 
Ah ! it was not his head, but his heart, that controlled the act. 

See that drunken man staggering down the street. He spent per- 
haps his last cent for his drinks. His wife aand little ones are 
at home hungry and cold. Day by day he is bringing them to 
misery, shame, and want. Does he not know better? And, in his 
quiet, sober moments, does he not resolve to do better? 

On every Lord^s day appeals, loving and tender, go from our pul- 
pits to the people. The people are convinced, but not moved to 
action. They cannot give up the pleasures of life — the methods 
of worldly operations. Brethren, it is not argument we want from 
the pulpit, but the power of the gospel to change the heart. 

Neither can the religions of the world reach the condition of the 
human race. All men are religious. Two things are universal — 
sin and religion. Eeligion, unless it is genuine, is an added chain, 
fetter, and burden. Not long ago, after we had taken our foreign 
mission offering, a good sister said to her pastor : "I did not contri- 
bute to that offering because I did not believe in it. Suppose those 
heathen nations should send an offering to America to convert us 
to their religion ? They have a religion, and it suits them ; let them 



THE MlSSIOi^ SPIRIT. 313 

alone." Let us not forget that there is no other name under heaven 
among men whereby we mnst be saved except the name of Jesns, 
and therefore we are commanded by him to go into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creatnre. A religion that does not 
change the heart and life will never develop a righteous nation nor 
enable men to meet God in peace. 

Now, does the kingdom of Christ meet the condition of sin, 
supply the demands of the souls, and furnish the race with the 
loftiest ideals? Let us see. From the days of Christ until now has 
not the gospel wrought great changes in men? William E. Glad- 
stone leaned upon the staff Almightj^, and wrought manfully 
through his name, and died in the triumph of a living faith. Other 
great minds have followed in his steps. Our own loved and lost 
McKinley embraced the Christian religion while yet in youth. He 
was true to his religion, and his religion was true to him. It helped 
him to shoulder his great responsibilities and to bear his imperial 
burdens. It comforted him in his dying hours. This Christ in the 
sold has made the poor old washerwoman bending over her tub sing : 

" Happy day, happy day, 
When Jesus washed my sins away; 
He taught me how to watch and pray, 
And live rejoicing every day." 

This gospel has caused these messengers, boards, and secretaries to 
leave their shops, stores, offices, and homes and meet in their annual 
convention to plan, work, weep, and pray. This gospel has caused 
some of the noblest men and women the world ever knew to give 
their lives to foreign work, and finally their bodies to foreign soil. 
In each case named above it is the love in the heart of the Lord 
Jesus. A few days ago I heard an elderly lady, as she stood 
trembling on her feet, say : "]\Iore than half a century ago I trusted 
my soul to Jesus' care, and now, that I am old and earthly scenes 
are fading from my view, Jesus grows more and more precious to 
me. This religion is the hope of a sin-polluted, broken-hearted 
world.'' 



314 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

III. Notice in the last place the scope of the gospel. "Thy 
kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.^' From 
this we see that the kingdom of Clirist is to cover the whole earth. 
In other words, it is the religion for all people. The Hebrew reli- 
gion was for the Hebrew only; the Greek religion conld be under- 
stood only by the philosopher ; the Eoman religion was for the stal- 
wart Eoman. In fact, each race has had its peculiar religion. But 
Holy Writ, observation and experience teach unmistakably that the 
religion of Jesus Christ is to be the religion of the world. The 
fact that Jesus appeals to the heart and offers a remedy for sin, 
comfort and strength for the burdens of life, declares him the need 
of all the world. 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name, 
Let angels prostrate fall; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown Him Lord of all." 

Now, in view of the reasonableness of missions, the essence and 
scope of the kingdom of Christ, let the prayer of our heart be: 
"Thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
And let the prayer of our hands be : 

''Speed away, speed away on your mission of light, 
To the lands that are lying in darkness and night ; 
"Tis the Master's command, go ye forth in his name, 
The wonderful gospel of Jesus proclaim. 
Take your lives in your hand to the work while 'tis day. 
Speed away, speed away, speed away." 



CARTER HELM JOXES was born at Oakley, Nelson county, Va., No- 
vember 30, 18(51. Through his father, Re\'. John William Jones, D. D., he 
is descended from the Marshalls, Russells, Ashbys, Strothers, Pendletons, 
and others who were illustrious in the Colonial and Revolutionary history 
of the Old Dominion. Through his mother, Mrs. Judith Page Jones {nee 
Helm), he traces his ancestry back to the Carters, Pages, Brookes, and other 
noble families of Colonial America and of England. Alter his course at 
Richmond College, Virginia, he went to the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary at Louisville, Ky., entering in October, 1882, and graduating in 
1885. The next session he entered the University of Virginia, where he took 
a special course. During his seminary days he was pastor at New Castle 
and a country church near Shelbyville, Ky. While at the university he was 
pastor of Berea and Mechaniosville churches in Louisa county, Va. In 
January, 1886, he accepted a call to the First Baptist Church of Elizabeth, 
N. J., and served them for four years. He then became pastor of the First 
Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tenn., and for four years preached to crowded 
congregations and had one of the most successful pastorates in the South. 
In 1894 he went to McFerran Memorial Church, Louisville, Ky. During 
this pastorate, which was most acceptable and efficient, he made a tour of 
the Holy Land and parts of Europe. In October, 1897, he accepted a call 
to the Broadway Church, of Louisville, where he is attracting large congre- 
gations and steadily adding to the membership, zeal, and efficiency of that 
strong body. In the spring of 1886 he was married to Miss Anne McCown, 
of Gordonsville, Va. They have two children — Catherine Page and Carter 
Brooke. Dr. Jones has had most successful experiences in aiding fellow- 
pastors in protracted meetings, and has preached in great revivals in 
Charleston, Atlanta, Mobile, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Memphis, St. Louis, 
Baltimore, Richmond, and other places. He is in great demand as a "sup- 
ply," for commencement sermons, and addresses at social unions, both in 
the North and in the South. He belongs to a family of preachers, his father 
being Dr. John William Jones, pastor of the Baptist Church at Chapel Hill, 
N. C, and his brothers, Rev. Edloe Pendleton Jones, of the First Baptist 
Church, OweiLsboro, Ky. ; Eev. Meredith Ashby Jones, of Leigh-Street Bap- 
tist Church, Richmond, Va., and Rev. Howard Lee Jones, of the Baptist 
Church of the Epiphany, New York city. Dr. Jones never writes his ser- 
mons or addresses or takes notes with him into the pulpit, but looks the 
people squarely in the eye and talks fluently, in chaste, eloquent language, 
to their minds, hearts, and consciences. He is generally regarded as 
among the great preachers of America. He seems more ambitious to win 
souls to Christ than to gain praise for himself, and is an humble, conse- 
crated, hard-working servant of the Lord, seeking to do his will and pro- 
mote his glory. In the full vigor of his physical and intellectual powers, 
there .seem to open before him long years of increasing usefulness. 
(315) 




1 urn 



THE GREAT SALVATION. 317 



XXYII 
THE GREAT SALVATION* 



By Carter Helm Jones, D. D., 

Kentucky 

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great isalvation, which at the first 
began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that 
heard him; God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, 
and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own 
will?"— Heb. 2: 3, 4. 

^ ^ T^ AMILIAEITY breeds contempt" we tritely, and yet none the 

1 less truly, say. Men go across a continent, yes, across a 
world, to see some natural wonder which, others, a few miles off, 
live and die without seeing. I have thought sometimes that the 
word "salvation" has become so trite with us that while deeds of 
philanthropy and acts of heroism thrill u.s, the great salvation is like 
the earth we tread — common, necessary, and unnoticed. 

Yes, we rush sometimes to see the flash of a meteor, or some 
new light discovered by science — and yet the King of Day, as he 
sinks to rest, throws roseate kisses to a thankless and forgetting 
world. 

If we can pause long enough to let the grind of the wheels of 
our daily life die away in the distance, and open our hearts, per- 
haps this great salvation may come in to-day and fill us so full 
that all else shall be forgotten. "So great salvation" ! 

Great in its Conception. — In the council chambers of Deity 
the Godhead commune. Omniscience was its author; Omnipotence 



*Stenographically reported for The American Baptist Pulpit as deliv- 
ered in the St. Francis-Street Baptist Church, Mobile, Ala., March 24, 1901. 
Dr. Jones never writes his sermons. 



318 THE AMEKICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

its executive; Eternity its scope; the only begotten Son, the second 
in the glorious Trinity, its sacrificial victim. 

Great in its Peoclamation. — "Which at the first began.'' 
Who of ns does not like to get "at the first'' of things? A divine 
inquisitiveness is the mother of wisdom, and in every age the 
beckoning gleam of truth, on heights unsealed and paths untrod, 
has brought the searcher after truth into every new thought, every 
new philosophy, every new religion, every great invention, and 
every noble light. I love to go to fountain heads. A party was 
rambling, a few years ago, among lofty mountains. A pieak allured 
us. We started for the top. "Excelsior" was the watchword of that 
climb. With the wild delirium^ of the glorious ozone, with the 
abandon of childhood, sometimes stumbling, scrambling, anon fall- 
ing, clinging, holding, panting, and breathless, at last we reached 
the top. And there gushing from a living rock was a fountain, and 
I uncovered before the mother of two mighty rivers that after awhile 
bear on their bosom the argosies of inland commerce. 

And who of us does not love to visit the birthplace of a great 
man; the founder of some mighty system; the inventor of some 
revolutionary force; the genesis of some world^blessing influence? 
Everything that has made the earth better without, has first, in 
reserve power, quivered, flashed, and tingled within. The 
philosophy that has made unborn generationsi afterward to kneel 
at its feet, first perplexed the brain of a single man. The painter, 
who has breathed upon immortal canvas some deathless picture, 
has first dipped his brush in the hues of his own soul and painted 
on the retina of his heart. Handel first heard the divine measures 
of the Hallelujah Chorus sweep over his own^ soul and fill every 
corridor, ere he enchained the listening centuries to that mightiest 
chorus that falls sometimes, with rising crescendo, about the very 
throne of God. 

One day as a man walked by the tawny Thames he stopped, and 
men thought him mad. He looked' — ^he smiled^ and clapped his 
hands as a child would. Fool ? No. Dreamer ? Yes. The great 
m'en of the world are dreamers of dreams and seers of sights. He 
saw in mid murlcy heavens the St. Paul's that was to be. Chris- 
topher Wren took the poem from his heart and left it in stone. 



THE GEEAT SALVATIOX. 319 

And so ^'at the first'^ our religion was proclaimed by the Lord, 
who is Jesus Christ. Find me 3'our heroes, find me your 
philosophers, find me your teaehei*s, leaders, all, and when you have 
chapleted them with laurels well won, then let us know that our 
founder and our first preacher was a God; Jesus was the first 
preacher of the great salvation. 

But notice further its confirmation. "Confirmed unto us by 
them that heard him." The annals of oratory are among the most 
fascinating in the world. I can still feel the stirring of my pulses' 
play as I read the history of speech in any age and in any clime. 
I want to say deliberately, after giving it some thought and study, 
that never in the days of brilliant ^schines or peerless De- 
mosthenes, never in the best days of Cicero, never in the zenith of 
the French Tribune, or the annals of British oratory, never in the 
days of Henry, Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Prentiss, or Marshall; 
no, never in the history of the world^s eloquence, was there such 
gift of speech, divine speech, as was given to those humble fisher- 
men — Apostles. Yesterday they walked with the Lord, last even- 
ing they forsook him, to-day they have felt "the power of His 
resurrection," and are leading men witli enthralling speech captives 
to the feet of the Lord of our great salvation. 

But read further: "God also bearing them witness, both with 
signs, and wonders, and with divers miracles." I am aware that 
there are men who do not l^elieve in miracles, and it used to be the 
fashion of the pulpit to become apologetic when it came to miracles. 
But, brethren, even though our little intellectual tin cups are not 
able to bail the mighty Atlantic, shall we brush it away and say it 
does not exist? Even though the little foot-rule of our intellects 
may not be able to measure the mighty cope of yon heaven, shall 
we argue it out of existence? Even though I may not be able to 
reduce God to a black-board, and Divinity to an equation, shall 
I rationalize God from his throne ? Even though we may say that 
miracles "simply do not happen," shall I for that reason blot 
them out of the book that teaches them? Xay, nay, nay! As I 
believe in the great First Cause, and as I believe that He sent his 
Son into the world to bring this great salvation, surely if ever 
nature were to respond to her Maker, and quiver until even^ nerve 



320 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tingled, and every fibre became sensitive; if G-od were ever to break 
through the limits laid by his own laws and make' the dead to 
leave their graves-, the blind to open their eyes, the deaf to listen, 
the lame to walk, and the dumb to speak, surely it would be at 
such a time when he was bringing into a wretched world his Son 
to live, to die, to save it! So I am not afraid to dogmatize, if 
you please, with the magnificent dogmatism of God's own word, 
that our salvation was ushered in "with divers miracles/' 

But it was also great in its proclamation, because G-od also 
bore them witness with "gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his 
own will." The Holy Spirit came and witnessed the preaching 
of our gospel. Brethren, I do not know as much about the Holy 
Spirit as some men say they do, but as I believe in God the Father, 
and in God the Son, I also' do believe in God the Holy Spirit. 
If ever there was some callow age in the fledgeling history of my 
ministry, when I was foolish enough to attempt the philosophy 
of the mystery of the Trinity, it is gone to the limbo of forget- 
fulness, with all other mysteries with which God has compassed 
me about, and the shadow makes the Son's revealing light all the 
brighter and sweeter. I thank God for the Holy Spirit who brings 
power to men and witnesses the gospel of the dear Son. 

I think I see the vision that the old prophet saw. The great 
lamp, with its wondrous candelabra. I think I see the great olive 
trees bringing their tokens and sending the* richness of their unction 
through the pipes to feed the lamp. What does that mean ? "This 
is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, "Not by might, nor 
by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." And some- 
times when I look over our modem churches, and see the magni- 
ficence of our candelabra of organization, flashing in the light of 
the twentieth century civilization, glistening with much polish, 
beautiful, graceful, and ramifying in all directions, I feel like cry- 
ing, "Oh ! church, what we need is not more lamps, but more light !" 
Come, Holy Spirit! Oh, come Holy Spirit, and fall upon our 
feeble churches to-day, rouse them from the inertia of their weak- 
ness, and make them dynamic with God to the salvation of the 
world! Oh, that Christ would come, and silencing this poor 
speaker to-day, say, as of old, "Eeceive ye the Holy Spirit." 



THE GREAT SALVATION. 321 

In the third place our salvation is great in what it saves us 
FROM. It saves ns from sin. The word *^sin" is nnpopnlar in the 
pretty vocabularies of our day, and it falls with harshness upon the 
delicate tjinpannm of our exquisitely sensitive ears, but it is an 
awful fact. Dress it in euphemisms as we please, with all the 
furbelows of dainty phraseology. Though we may cover the cancer 
with ribbons and flowers, it still eats its gangrenous way until it 
has gnawed the silver cord. No, no. Sin is the most awful fact of 
a terrible age. Listen to its voice. Starting at the outer gates of 
Eden, and coming down throughj the centuries, it gathers into an 
age-long threnody the weeping of children; the moans of strong 
men; the sobbing of broken-hearted women; the sighs of the hope- 
less, and the wails of widows. It choirs into chaotic chorus the 
shriek of the maniac ; the scream of the ^dctim ; the remorseful rav- 
ing of the murderer, and the rancorous shouts of the shameless. 

Wliat a fact it is to-day ! Some men say there is nO' sin ; there 
is only infirmity. Some men say that when this world fell, it fell 
up. I fell down, as my fathers before me, and I feel the awful 
pain of it. I look about me to-day and think how men have tried 
to escape sin. Sometimes with monastic asceticism they would go 
and drive the very eagle from its eyrie in some cloud-tipped peak, 
but sin was there when they got there, and staid with them. And 
sometimes, even to-day, it comes and tears the husband from the 
wife, and turns the heart of the child away from the mother, and 
the mother from the child. It comes into the church of Glod. It 
joins, and is in full fellowship and regular standing. It comes up 
the aisle, and into the pulpit. It looks sometimes from the very 
pages of G-od^s word, and touches with paralysis the lips of the 
preacher, or freezes with pride his heart. It sometimes freights 
the ver\^ loving sentences he fain would speak, and puts the asp-like 
venom of the serpent there. Sin, sin out of fashion ? 0, G-od that 
it were ! Let me say something that may seem harsh, and yet it is 
true. We are living in the best country in the world ; in the best age 
of its history'' ; and, yet, I ask you to find the most awful crime in the 
history of this worlds — I care not what age of the history or what 
black part of the barbarous map of iniquity you take it from. Have 
vou found it ? I can match it in the United States of America in 



322 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the last ten years. Nay, I can match; it in the United States of 
America in the last twelve months. Kay, I can find (and I am no 
detective) crimes committed in our so-called Christian land that 
would crimson the cheek of Babylon, and bring Sodom to shame, 
and not go outside of our boasted Christian civilization, the last 
year, the last six months, the last sixty days. Yes, I can find 
wickedness undreamed of in the diabolism of Kero's Rome, beyond 
the ken of the orgies of Pompeii, committed under the very eaves 
of the houses where dilletante religionists are writing sin out of 
existence. 

Sin ! SIN" ! ! SIN" ! ! ! In a gruesome Siberian mine there was an 
accident. The windlass was broken, the only exit from its awful 
depths. It was several days before they could send a rescuing party 
down to see what had become of the poor wretches who were 
chained in that living tomb. And as the relief party went down 
the subterranean paths, looking for two men, they said they felt that 
pandemonium had broken loose, as they heard cries dehumanized in 
their awful agony. Presently there stalked toward them a gaunt 
giant, raving in a wild delirium, and dragging behind him the 
rottening corpse of his comrade, who had died nearly a week be- 
fore. "0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this 
body of death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Brethren, the great salvation of Jesus Christ came to save us 
from the power of sin, as well as from its stain and penalty. Some- 
times when we compare salvation with the philanthropies of this 
world, I see this picture. Sin is an enormous tree of fearful girths — 
a upas — and, 0, what a mighty trunk ! And as' it grows and shadows 
and curses the earth, see the great limbs — ^here is the mighty bough 
of intemperance — and here is the terrible bough of immorality — 
and there is another bough of gambling — and here is another of 
Sabbath desecration — and the limbs, and the boughs, and the twigs 
represent every manner of jealousy, hate, covetousness, pride, vice 
and wickedness. And under this bough on the right, I see a great 
company of men and women who are pra^dng and preaching and 
exhorting, and they have great long petitions, and are saying to all 
the world, "0, come and help us to cut off this limb of intemperance, 
and our homes are saved and our hearts are saved and the world is 



THE C-EEAT SALVATIOX. 323 

saved.'* And on this side is another companT, with white crosses — 
God bless them — and they are earnestly saying, "intemperance is 
slaying its thousands, but immorality is slaying its tens of thou- 
sands. Come, help us cut off this limb of personal impurity"'; 
and they are hacking at it, and they are praying and preaching and 
legislating. And over there is a noble set of splendid old people, 
and they are saying, '"The curse of our land is Sabbath breaking — 0, 
give us laws and enactments and statutes, and we can save our 
Sabbath, and save our land.-'^ And so they are praying to cut off 
the limb of Sabbath breaking. And so with all the others you can 
find under every limb, branch, bough, and twig, a society, a band, 
a coterie, league, or circle, that has been organized to suppress them. 
But above all their songs and prayers and preachings, I think I 
hear the thunder of an elemental voice — I see the flash of some- 
thing — I hear a ringing voice saying, "the axe is laid to the root 
of the tree"' — and that is the Gospel — ^that is the great salvation. 
All those other things are philosophies, philanthropies, and re- 
forms. Great because it saves us personally from sin. FoTmation 
is better than reformation. Eegeneration must precede revolution. 
"What must I do to be saved?"' The" twentieth century must catch 
its answer from the first : ''Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved." 

But in the next place, I want to say it is geeat ix what it saves 
us to. Our salvation not only saves us from sin, but saves us unto 
something. Oh, how many people are saved from an evil and then 
left, and that is the end of it. I see a picture before me now. It 
was the winter of three years ago in a great city. A company of 
bright faced girls, loaded with provisions, are climbing a stair, and 
presently they knock at a dirty door. Entering, they find a poor 
sick man lying upon a broken-down bed, some feeble, helpless little 
children, and a wasted, worn wife. They have nothing to eat, and 
no fuel to bum. Presto! change! What magic is here? In a 
moment a merry fire is laughing the chill away, and delicious 
dainties load the table down. There are smiles, and there are 
flowers, bright wordsy — "ministering angels" they begin to say. 
After awhile, a sweet song is sung, and the visitoi^ slip away. "Oh, 
ministering angels, indeed — God sent them!" I do not know. I 



324 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

do not know whether God sent thiem, or not. Wait awhile. The 
ne'xt daj the garret denizens take the old burnt edges that are left, 
and try to kindle a little fire with them — and the da,y after they have 
nothing hut ashes to remind them] — ^^and nothing hut the crumbs that 
the children lick up. And the day after, look upon them — poor, 
gaunt creatures. And the poor dying wretch drags himself to the 
head of the stairs, almost beside himself — and shaking his fist, says, 
"Oh, ye devils, why did you com^ and mock our sufferings ? Why 
did you come? Why did you come?" That is philanthropy — 
that is reform — that is sentiment — characterize it as you choose. 

Our salvation not only saves from, but saves to. Hear an old^ 
fashioned story from an old-fashioned man. "I waited patiently 
for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He 
brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay." Is 
not that glorious? I know men who do that. I know men who 
have reformed men. Yes, Grod bless them as far as they go — ^they 
are reaching down nobly and bravely, and I would call no fire upon 
them, for they are pulling men out of the horrible pit, but they leave 
them standing on the edge, and tumbling back and falling deeper 
still., Hear this old-fashioned man — "Out of the miry clay, and set 
my feet upon a rock." That is what our salvation does. It gives 
us a new standing. "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other 
ground is sinking sand." "Eock of ages cleft for me, let me hide 
myself in thee." 

But that is not all. It not only gives us a new standing, but a 
new life, "and established my goings" — it has taught me a new way 
to walk, given me a changed face and a new direction. The first 
thing salvation teaches a man is to walk away from the pit. "He 
established my goings." The Christian leaves the pit and goes up to 
something nobler and higher. I love to hear Jesus say, "I am come 
into the world that ye might have life, and have it more abun- 
dantly." I will not let any man belittle my Lord, and say Jesus 
Christ came into this world to save men from hell. He did not do it. 
He does save men from hell, but he came into this world to save men 
unto righteousness, unto Christ-likeness, unto peace and power, 
and then into heaven at last. Hell is an incident in the chain of sal- 
vation. 



THE GREAT SALVATION. 325 

But let me read from this foTtieth Psalm again: "He has put 
a new song in my month; even praise XLato onr Gad: Many shall 
see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord/^ A new song, and a 
new influence. 

This is an epitome of the beginnings of a Christian life. "If 
any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old thin^ are passed 
away, behold all things are become new." The great salvation is in 
the present tense, if we will receive it. "He that hath the Son hath 
Hfe/'^ Out of his regal reserve power, G-od so richly endows ns 
that even here the Christian can 

" Be like a bird, one momeiit lighted, 
Upon a twig that swings. 
He feels it yield, yet sings on unaffrighted. 
Knowing lie hath his wings." 

Bnt our great salvation not only saves ns to the new, ascending 
life here — ^it saves ns at last in heaven. Dear old world, as in onr 
childhood days, it stands a symbol for the ineffable mysteries of a 
bright immortality. Bnt who can body it forth in words ? I love to 
thiTiTr of it as a place of blest immnnities. Xo sin there, for "there 
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth." Since there 
shall be no sin, then of course, "there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; 
for the former things are passed away." Bnt, besides the bright 
negations which shnt ont earth^s ills. Heaven has positive blessings 
beyond onr power to conceive. Heaven means G-od. ^^ehold 
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed npon ns that we 
shonld be called the sons of G-od. Beloved now are we the sons of 
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; bnt we know 
that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him 
as he is." Heaven means growth. With earthly clogs thrown off, 
G-od gives to his children an eternity of limitless development. 'No 
longer the eagle sonl beats its wings against the finite bars. At 
God^s beckoning smile, death opens the cage, and the soaring sonl, 
through endless cycles, mounts to ever nobler empyreans of praise, 
love, beauty, wisdom, music, ministr}*, and fellowship. Then why 



326 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

shjould one, who knows the great Salvation, fear death ? Since that 
glad morning, "the first day of the week," when Joseph's tomb 
opened its adamantine lips and said to all ages, "He is Eisen'^; 
death, wearing Christ's livery of light, has been his stingless mes- 
senger to convoy his people to the "Many Mansions." Heaven is 
very near, for, to the Christian, death is 

" Naught but the lifting of a latch, 
A step into the open air; 
Out of a tent already luminous 
With the light which shines through its transparent folds." 

The Spanish^ American war was over, the last battle fought. The 
First Kentucky Eegiment was standing on the shores of Porto 
Eico waiting for the tardy transports. And as they waited they 
were longing; longing with the homesick yearnings, that only the 
Bine Grass boys can ever know, for "the old Kentucky home." Just 
at that time I visited a saintly woman suffering with a fatal malady. 
She greeted me with a smile, and said : "I am afraid I have been 
sinning to-day." "Why, what have you been doing ?" I asked. "I 
have been prajdng God to come and take me home, I am so homesick 
for Heaven." And the very day the Kentucky boys embarked on 
their homeward way, her prow grated the golden sandte, and her 
anchor was cast in the port of perfect peace. 

Yes, Heaven is very near. I have heard my father tell of those 
thrilling old days when he marched through the Valley of Virginia 
with the immortal "Foot Cavalry" of Stonewall Jackson. After 
days of terrible marching, toward evening, exhausted men would 
begin to drop out of line here and there. Stragglers increased, as 
the shadows lengthened, sometimes leaving, from unshod feet, 
traces of blood upon the stones. But presently the word would 
be passed down the line, "Boys, the head of the column is going into 
camp." Then the stragglers would fall in again, the weak became 
strong, as they thought of the sweet rest just ahead of them. They 
bivouacked hard by some clear stream, sentineled by majestic 
mountains. Brethren, let a comrade cry down the ranks to you, 
^^The head of our column has gone into camp!" I am thinking 



THE GEEAT SALYATIOX. 327 

of our convention leaders, whose ''good gray heads" I reverenced 
in childhood. Men of mighty minds, superb leadership, seraphic 
speech. Yes, Jeter, FuLler, Poindexter, Wingate, Mell, Fnrman, 
Winkler, Dudley, Boyce, Landnim, Burrows, and Broadns have 
bivouacked, beyond war^s rude alarms, in green pastures, beside 
still waters. Yes, Heaven grows richer every day. 

"So great salvation" — come Gabriel, Michael help me tell of it ! 
Xay, ye cannot, for ye have never ta-sted the rajjture of redeeming 
grace. Let eloquence bankrupt every vocabular}* and impoverish 
all hum.an speech, and the greatness of this salvation can never be 
told. Dr. William Eoyal used to say to the young preachers at 
Wake Forest College: '^'Brethren there is one text in the Bible I 
can never preach from. It is Tor God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life.' Brethren, what are you going 
to do with that word so f I feel that way to-day. After all that I 
have tried to say — ^what can we do with that word ^^so'^ — "so great 
salvation"? I wonder if we can measure it. Here are the scales 
of Eternity, and I put "so great salvation" in one side. In the 
other, I put mountains, and it is as nothing. I put all human 
history — ^it weighs not a feather. I put in the world — and then the 
universe. They are as "dust in the balance.'-' At last I put in that 
other "so^^ — "'God so loved,'* and instantly the balance is 
struck. For the So great love of God finds its measure in the "so 
great salvation," and in the exquisite equipoise of a perfect balance 
we can see how great is the love which has provided for us "'so great 
salvation." 



328 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXVIII 
JESUS, THE WOELD^S GEEAT COMMONEE 



By William Lowndes Pickard, D. D., 

Ohio 

"And the common people heard him gladly." — Mark 12 : 37. 

^^O OME are born great, some achieve greatness, and' some have 

O greatness thrust upon 'em." As the world speaks of great- 
ness, an heir to England's throne is born great, and when his crown- 
ing time comes, greatness is thrust upon him. But men like 
Demosthenes, Pericles, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Cassar, 
Oliver Cromwell, Shakespeare, Milton, Patrick Henry, Washington, 
Jefferson, Lincoln, and Gladstone achieve greatness. 

Many of those who are '^'horn great'' and "have greatness thrust 
upon 'em" by the laws that bolster crowns and thrones, are not 
truly great. Many of them stand in history am'ong the world's con- 
temptible weaklings, and were great only as monsters of iniquity. 
He only is truly great who achieves it by dint of intrinsic worth, 
whether he inherits a throne, or, by his worth, creates a throne in 
the world's judgment and affection. Ko man was ever a great com- 
moner who did not by intellectuality and heart-power win his place 
in the minds and hearts of the people. 

In the highest and best sense, Jesus was the world's great com- 
moner when on earth, and still sways the masses with a power 
uniquely his own.. 

He was emphatically a man of the masses. He was bom, reared, 
trained among the common people — ^that is, among the masses of 
humianity, rather than among those of the court circles. He breathed 
the pure atmosphere on the hills which God had reserved for flowers, 
birds, and men, rather than that of the smoke-beclouded city. He 




L. f 



\YILLIAM LOWXDES PICKAED was born in Upson county, Ga., Octo- 
ber 19, 1861. His father, James LaFayette Pickard, was a prosperous 
planter and a noble specimen of the Christian gentleman. His mother, Ann 
Hasseltine Koss Pickard, was a refined Christian woman. In America his 
ancestors were Baptists; in Europe, Huguenots. On his mother's side there 
has been a preacher in the family for the past three generations. William's 
father died during the civil war. At the close of the great struggle the 
family estate had been swept away, and early in life young Pickard was 
thrown upon his OA^m resources. Soon after the war he went to live in Tal- 
bot county, Ga., with his uncle by marriage, Mr. James Pound. This ^Yas a 
home of culture and good books. Here in his boyhood William became 
familiar with many of the great books of English literature, which now so 
enriches his style of discourse. His life was spent in the public and private 
schools of his community and at hard work during vacations. The atmos- 
phere he breathed was wholesome physically, mentalh", and morally. When 
seventeen years of age he went to College Temple at Newman, Ga., where 
he spent one year. The following fall he entered Mercer University, Macon,. 
Ga. After three sessions of diligent study, he graduated with the full 
degree and high distinction. He was very fond of the classics, literature^ 
psychology, and philosophy. He was easily the debater and writer of the 
university. His graduating address was on "Technological Education," and 
was such a clear analysis of the subject that Henry W. Grady wrote a 
strong editorial about it in the Atlanta (Constitution. After a long struggle 
he yielded to the conviction that he should preach the gospel, and he com- 
menced during the vacation between his junior and senior years in Mercer 
University. From this school he went to the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary at Louisville, Ky., where after three years he graduated in full 
under the renowned teachers, Drs. James P. Boyce, John A. Broadus, Basil 
Manly, and William H. Whitsitt. After graduating at the seminary, he 
Avent with his young wife — nee Florie May Willingham, oi Albany, Ga. — to 
Eufaula, Ala. Here for two years God blessed him abundantly in his work, 
the church being constantly crowded and many souls saved. Then he became 
pastor of the First Church, Birmingham, Ala., remaining there for four 
years. Standing room was at a premium to late comers, and the church 
mightily grew under his ministry, hundreds being added to its membership. 
Thence he w^as called to Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., where 
his church grew as had his others, and in a ministry of a little less than 
live years about five hundred souls were added to the membership. After Dr. 
Pickard closed his work in Louisville he Avent to Mr. D. L. Moody's Bible In- 
stitute in Chicago, where he lectured daily for nearly six weeks. While 
lecturing there and preaching at the First Baptist Church, the First Baptist 
Church of Cleveland, Ohio, extended him a call, which he accepted. Three 
months after he commenced his pastorate there the great building could not 
seat the congregations that attended. In that great city he is easily leader 
among the ministers, and his church is regarded as the foremost in spiritual 
power. Dr. Pickard is a writer to Avhose pen the best magazines are open. 
Some of his poems have been copied literally over America and Europe. 
Notable among these are "The Olden Rainy Day," "America's Fairy Land," 
'"^Memorial Day," and "The Resurrection." One of the great editors of the 
North said: "Dr. Pickard is a tremendous writer, and the world will read 
Avhat he says. He ought to give his life to writing." He has lectured and 
preached in thirty-tiA'e States of the Union, and everywhere he has struck 
the sympathetic chord of the human heart. His reading is broad and sys- 
tematic, and he has ever been a critical, persevering student. He is a pure, 
spirit-filled man, a lover of humanity, and is full of common sense. His 
home life is a model of strength and gentleness. He has been called "a, 
combination of John and Elijah." 
(330) 



JESUS^ THE world's GREAT COMMONER. 331 

lived among pure people who thought God^s thoughts and still be- 
lieved in the Lord God of Elijah. He not only beheld their toil, but, 
by his own yokemaking, learned to bear the yoke with them — a, hard 
yoke^ — ^that one day he might be able to give tO' them an easy yoke. 
He was not only "touched" by, but was pierced and pressed by their 
infirmities. 

When a public teacher, he became the central figure of his times 
and country; he drew to himself the attention of all classes of 
society. Any class in society would gladly have taken him as their 
particularly bright star had he permitted it. But he moved on in 
his quiet dignity, the representative of humanity. When the throng 
would have made him king he rejected the crown. When here and 
there one of high estate desired fellowship with Jesus, the individual 
had to break caste and come to Jesus; Jesus never went into caste 
for individuals. He was distinctly humanity's man, and while all 
heard him, and studied him to some extent, it was the so-called 
common people who heard him gladly. 

Jesus wished to reach and save the world. Hence he became the 
ally of no class. He had thoughts to give to the individual, or the 
masses, as occasion suggested. He had sympathy to give to earth's 
sorrowing millions. And his thoughts and feelings would finally 
create a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. He 
had seeing power and lifting power for humanity. He proposed 
to lift humanity by truth and love.. His truth had leveling power 
in it, to lift the poor and humble, and to humble the haughty. To 
save a world, which he pronounced lost, was his consuming pur- 
pose — and to this ideal he was consecrated in life and death, by life 
and death. He was not undertaking for some province, or race, or 
country, merely, but for all races, in all countries, through all com- 
ing centuries of human history. He was Homo — ^had entered into all 
humanity, and would so enter into all of its problems as to make it 
impossible henceforth to have the history of the race written without 
writing especially of him. To write a life of him one must write 
of him as a son, a missioner, a servant, a man, a brother, a friend, 
a churchman, a statesman, a philosopher, an orator, an ethical 
teacher, a reformer, a savior, a judge, the G-od of man, the lover of 
truth and righteousness, and the implacable foe to all evil, the 



332 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

world-lifter, and the victor over all wrong. The ever-loving one, but 
also the nncompromising representative of hnmianity, who must 
march front till all the nations of earth shall voluntarily crown him 
as the supreme one in the repiiblic of thought, acknowledging his 
dictum, enthroning him in the souls of men, crowning him' as Lord 
of love I 

JESUS^ BRAIN 

The people listened to Jesus because he had something to say. It 
takes intellectuality, plus genuine interest in them, to reach and hold 
the masses. Jesus is often written of and spoken of as the em- 
bodiment of moral greatness. He was this, but also the world^s 
greatest intellectuality^ Six months before his death one of his 
enemies said : "N"ever man spake like this man.-" The one who said 
this of him had gone armed with a warrant to arrest him. Jesus 
spake to him, he folded his document, went back and said to the 
chief officers : "I did not arrest him because he talked, and never 
man spake as this man." It was not the result of oratory or elocu- 
tion, neither of a threat, but of something overpowering in the utter- 
ance of the man. Paul has been called "the synonym of intellectual 
greatness.^^ But the truths about which he reasoned with logic set 
on fire, Jesus had announced. The difference between Jesus and 
Paul intellectually is vast; the difference between their thought is 
that which exists between a creative mind and one which expounds 
what another has originated. 

Jesus^ intellectuality has often been weighed, but never found 
wanting. In it was no self-glorification. He was very humble. 
He met with no life too humble to receive his attention. Yet he 
showed no pride of humilit}^, for in speaking of one of the great 
intellects of the ages he said: "A greater than Solomon is here." 
He said this perfectly unconscious of egotism, perfectly conscious 
of the truthfulness of the statement. 

Jesus was not a cloistered theorist. He had no hobby. He 
moved among men, touching every phase of thought in the age in 
which he lived. He touched the thought of the politics, philoso- 
phy, sociology, and religion of his times. He dealt with Pharisaical 
tradition; Sadducean philosophy, rationalism, skepticism, skeptical 
scribes, with their subtleties, world-rulers, with their society and po- 



JESUS^ THE WORLD^S GREAT COMMONER. 333 

litical deceptions, the poor in their wretchedness, the rich in their 
luxury, with friends in their love and with his enemies in their 
hatred, as one in their midst, knowing their needs, and Ms own lofty 
mission. In all this he never made a wrong estimate of a person. 
With calm dignity he gave his estimate of all these conditions, and 
you instinctively agree with him. His discrimination was just. 
Whether truth-seekers or enemies interrogated him, you feel that he 
gave the righteous answers ; and they were given immediately — ^just 
announced. 

When the woman of crime was brought to him, her accusers ex- 
pected to entrap him. If he said not to stone her, they would cry : 
"He opposeth the law of Moses.^' If he said. Stone her, they would 
cry: "He opposeth the law of Caesar." He replies: "Let Mm that 
is sinless cast the first stone." It was neither a question of Jewish 
nor of Eoman law, but of justice. Jesus' answer was triumphantly 
righteous. So, too, when he cries out, "Woe unto you scribes, 
Pharisees, hypocrites," you feel that their h}^ocrisy deserved this 
burst of righteous indignation. 

Great pMlosophers and jurists often study long over questions 
submitted to them, give their answers, and then find themselves 
and others dissatisfied with their answers. But however great the 
issues involved in questions presented to Jesus, he at once an- 
nounced his decision, and you feel that from it there can be no 
appeal. Outside of Christ the world appeals from court to court, 
from the arbitrament of reason to the thunders of death, but be- 
fore the decisions of Christ the world stands dumb — th&re is no ap- 
peal! 

To study the question : What distinctively new thoughts did Jesus 
contribute to the world^s thought-treasury? would be to thresh old 
straw needlessly. He gave much new thought to the world, but Ms 
greatest contribution was his exposition of truth on old questions. 

JESUS AND SIN 

Every tribe and every nation of our race has had some form or 
forms of religion. This fact is an acknowledgment of Deity. All 
religion has been an acknowledgment of sin and an effort to get 
rid of it. TMs is shown by sacrifices. This is true by whatever 



334 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

name "sin" was called. The question of sin, then, has been a basal 
one in human thought and religion. 

Brahmanism, one of the oldest systems of religion known to us 
in the hum^an struggle, except that of the Hebrews, grappled with 
this question. But how ? Its writers wrote their hymns to please 
their gods, whose favor was desired. With Brahmans, Deity is not 
the creator. Brahmans: worship the phenomena of nature. They 
created innumerable gods, and, because of the fear of sin, wor- 
shipped these helpless gods which they had created by their own 
minds. The greatest god with them was Brahma — a pantheistic 
impersonality. Brahmanism^s greatest offer to man is final absorp- 
tion into Brahm — ^everlasting unconsciousness. The system recog- 
nizes sin and its blight, but does not tell how to get rid of it and its 
vices. The best Brahm'anism can offer to struggling, longing, aching 
souls is final unconsciousness, or transmigration intO' some other 
form of life for yet other ages of sorrow and suffering, and death 
again. Such words as Brahmanismi could give to the souls of men 
could not he final. It left the soul's deepest questions unanswered. 

Buddhism. — ^This arose as the reaction against Brahmanism. It 
denied the divinity of the Brahmianie gods, and proclaimed a system 
of philosophy for the betterment of the human race. "Budd*" means 
"enlightened,'' and this name was given to Gautama, who^ was bom 
in India about 623 B. C, At seventeen years of age he was led to 
study questions concerning misery, suffering, death. He wished to 
find deliverance from these. He said: "Birth is the cause of 
misery, old age, and death. Ignorance is the cause of existence; 
hence, remove ignorance and you remove existence, and with it 
all the sorrows of men." But this system still left men sorrowing 
and dying. Buddhism did not have a proper conception of G-od 
on the one hand, nor of sin on the other. 

What would a thief, or a libertine, or a murderer care for such 
a jelly-fish system of teaching? Or, what inspiration or consolation 
was there for those who were struggling for something better than 
they had? The result was: Eat, drink, be merry, for to-morrow 
thou mayest die. The chief teachings were: " ^Do nothing,' ^see 
nothing,' ^aim^ at nothing,' that the mind may finally enter into 
eternal nothingness." 



JESUS,. TEE ttoeld's gkeat commoxeb. 335 

This soiiiids strangely to us. It is as if an old man should say to 
his boy: 'M.y son, work hard; wear patched clothing; save all your 
money; eat breadcrust; drink water; gather lightwood, and by its 
blaze study till one o^clock at night. Do this till you are thirty 
years old, then you will be sufficiently educated to become a first- 
class fool the balance of your life! Or, it is like a nation that 
would work hundreds of years to build great school systems, great 
laws, great navies, and vast wealth, in order to be savage enough 
to live on parched com and raw meat, and to dress in deerskins 
decorated with feathers, painted with human blood I 

Confucianism. — About 550 B. C, when tyranny and anarchy 
were ranning riotously : when women were slaves to Libertines, and 
law was another name for license, Confucius was bom. He grew up 
and became a public teacher. His teax^hings were mainly two : viz., 
"'Have confidence in the goodness of human nature ;'' second, "Obey 
your superiors.'" The first was impossible. The second led to 
serfdom. Look at China and India — ^not yet in the swaddling clothes 
of true civilization, and judge of the lifting power of Con- 
fucianism. 

All these teachers had some elements of truth. But they saw 
through a glass darkly. Contrast, on these points, the teachings of 
Jesus. 

He said: "8m is the cause of sorrow and suffering, get rid of 
sin. But you cannot rid yourselves of sin. You cannot work your- 
selves good; nor suffer yourselves good, nor buy yourselves good. 
But I'm sinless, and God, the Creator, gives me for your sins." He 
said : ''There is a God, a judgment, and everlasting life after death. 
A life of glory for those whose sins are forgiven, an everlasting hell 
for those who are impenitent, furthermore, you must be cleansed 
in this life or not at aU." He said of himself : 'T am the truth, the 
life and the way." And, think of it, you cannot imagine Jesus not 
knowing the way of righteousness or the truth. To this he added 
the resurrection of the body, and the union of friends after death. 

-When Jesus thus spake, it was like the voice of many thunders 
turned into minstrel music. It commanded a hearing, and soothed 
aching hearts. Men and women cried: 'Tt is true, Lord, we are 
mined by sin. What shall we do?" Answer: '''Eepent of sin. 



336 THE AMEKICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

believe on me, and do what I sa}^, and you shall be saved." The 
great philosophers and the unlettered could alike understand him. 
Jesus taught men to keep their minds pure, souls pure, bodi^ pure. 
He taught that which gave the souls of men peace — ^perfect peace. 
Confucius says : "Trust man's goodness." Jesus sa,js : "Trust 
in God.'' Confucius says : "'Change your life." Jesus sa}'s : "Come 
to God and let him give you a new heart." Confucius says : "An- 
nihilation." Jesus says: "Everlasting being, happy, or miserable, 
according to the relation you sustain to me." These were new notes 
on the ears of the human race. I^othing approached the intel- 
lectual grasp of Christ before or since his day. His thoughts have 
freed man's soul and body wherever they have had free course. 
They have freed woman — soul and body. They have lifted up the 
common individuals and nations. Where Christ's thoughts have 
gone, the common and the unclean have become cleansed and un- 
common. He grasped the whole world in his thoughts, and said to 
his believing ones : "Go, tell all nations my thoughts." Do you 
wonder that the masses heard him gladly ? Truly, he spake a-s never 
man spake. 

In those days there had not come the telegraph, the telephone, 
the printing press, the daily paper, the steam engine, nor the electric 
motor. Yet, of him, the news quickly spread from lip to lip till far 
and near he was the theme of conversation, and people in streams 
of thousands went on long journeys to see his face, and hear his 
words. Imagine ourselves without railroads, telegraph}-, the daily 
papers, and all their allied conveniences. Then imagine some 
teacher in the streets of Columbus, Ohio, so wonderful that people 
are moving afoot by thousands from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, 
Pittsburg, Indianapolis, and many points between, to hear him, 
and you will catch some idea of Jesus^ imprint on his times. 

JESUS' HEART 

Jesus might have been the intellectuality he was, and yet have 
repelled the world. Thought is intimately associated with feeling. 
Great intellectualities have built impenetrable walls between them- 
selves and the people. He who would bless the world in a great 
sense needs more than brains — he needs a heart that beats in s}Tn- 



JESUS^ THE WORLD^S GREAT COMMONER. 337 

patli}^ witli men — a heart that bears in itself humanity's burdens. 
An ''Iron Chancellor' may cause his own nation to breathe the 
spirit of independence and war, but a great Commoner like Glad- 
stone helps a world to understand the superior greatness of peace 
and universal brotherhood. 

Jesus had the perfect, sympathetic heart. Could it be said: 
"Xever man spake like this man ;" so it could be said : ''Never man 
felt like this man. His moral nature was perfect. This cannot be 
said of all brilliant men. Some men of great brains are moral 
monsters. Jesus^ character was as lofty as his teachings. He was 
his doctrine's illustration perfectly. He was ^%oly, harmless, un- 
defiled, separate from sinners.'^ Yet, "was tried in all points like 
as we are, yet without sin." Jesus came to make the world 
think clearly on many great points, but he would lead the world up- 
ward morally to right relations with God, hence would give the 
world great moral impulses to render its thinking constructive 
rather than destructive. Hence, to God, to man, to truth, he must 
sustain a consistent relation. Did he tell us more of God and man 
than we ever knew before? So he must show to us more of God 
and man than we ever saw apart from him. 

Have you ever seen an absolutely perfect painting? Have you 
seen a perfect human character? Grant that your ideals are im- 
perfectly conceived; have 3^ou met in flesh and blood your ideals? 
Verily, nay. We have seen characters who were great and good. 
But they were not perfect in goodness and greatness. But you can- 
not imagine Jesus being not perfect. You cannot detect a weak 
point in his character. 

During his public career his enemies charged him with being "a 
gluttonous man and a wine bibber''; he was accused of being in 
league with a demon ; he was accused of receiving sinners and eating 
with them; of being an enemy of his country; of being hostile to 
Cssar; of blasphemy against Godi, by claiming equality with God; 
and of many things in keeping with these. To but two of these 
charges did he plead guilty : viz., that of receiving sinners and eat- 
ing with them, and of being the Son of God. That was because he 
loved sinners, and would save them. To all the other accusations he 



338 ^ THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

had but to give his answer in order to stand acquitted. Thus his 
moral nature was perfect.. 

His nature was perfectly balanced. One element of his in- 
tellect or nature was not abnornially developed at the' expense of 
other elements. In this respect he stands absolutely alone in the 
world's history. Many men are great and good, except in spots — 
each somewhere has fatal limitations and weaknesses. Jesus was 
spotless. John, who leaned his head on Jesus' bosom^ — was good — 
but Jesus was perfect. For example, we find great and good men 
and women, overcareful as to some duties, careless^ as to others. 
Not so with Jesus. With reference to duty, in things both great and 
small, he moved with an equally adjusted balance. 

He had neither wealth nor life's comforts, yet he did not com- 
plain, and fed the thousands. His sense of honor was keen. He 
was often insulted, but was never bitter nor revengeful. He kept 
in mind his relation to God, to man, and to his own purpose to 
bless and uplift the race. If men insulted him, it was the result of 
sin in them; hence, he would pray for them. He measured each 
mian by eternal possibilities. He was conscious of human condi- 
tions, as pain, hunger, weariness of body, sorrow of soul, yet none 
of these things unbalanced his heart. He craved the love of his 
friends, but never asked one of them to' pray for him. Before men 
he stood absolutely independent, but before God he bowed in 
perfect humility. 

He was a Hebrew who loved his country and his kinsmen. He 
honored their ancient laws, but cut across their traditions. He 
worshipped in their temple, but cleansed it. He paid temple tax, but 
taught that each worshipful heart, is God^s temple. He loved 
Jerusalem' and its inhabitants, and wept over them, but he was 
more than Jew. He was not a man of the world, but the man for 
all the world. He had in him all the Jewish greatness, with' none 
of the Jewish weakness. As a son, brother, friend, he was ideal. 
But neither kinship nor friendship could prevail on him to swerve 
a hair's breadth from dut}^ His "Father's work" was his engross- 
ing passion. When Irinsmen and friends would stay him from that 
work, they could not. To Calvary he would go, for he was the son 
of God in character, the son of man in sympathy. By life and 



JESUS, THE WOELD^S GREAT COMMONER. 339 

death be illustrated love. The humblest waif came to him with 
assurance. The strong man, in need of more strength, came to him. 
The tear-stained mother came to him, and to him came the Magda- 
lene. The children playing in the streets would run to meet him, 
and climb into his arms. And no aching heart ever got close to his 
heart without finding relief. We think of Brahma, Buddha, Con- 
fucius, and Mohammed as in the tomh. We go to dusty encyclopae- 
dias to study them. We feel that they were imperfect men, who are 
dead. We think of Jesus as living. We walk and comitnune with 
him. We see him on Calvary. But afterward we take supper with 
him at Emmaus'. We see him ascend. We look through the gate ajar 
with Stephen and see him on the right hand of Grod. He lives and 
loves. We can imagine other teachers like Brahma, Buddha, Con- 
fucius, Mohammed, but we cannot imagine another Jesus. There 
is not enough room in the phj^ical and moral universe for another 
like unto him. He fills all the space. He is Humanit)^^® man, its 
God; he is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending — the 
first and the last. 

JESUS' PLAN OF WORK 

We speak it reverently, it was not enough for Jesus to be perfect 
intellectually and morally. He could have been that, and yet failed 
of the work for which he was needed. He was intellectuality plus 
soul-power, actively engaged in trying to save the world. He 
viewed the world of humanity as a world of brothers — lost, and 
needing to he rescued. He had a theory about reaching the masses, 
and he put it into practice. He went after them, staid with them, 
and got them to see their needs.. This is still the wisest way. It 
is far better than standing aloof from them, talking at them and 
about them. 

Jesus could easily have gathered to himself, in some populous 
centre, a throng of admarers, who would have builded for him an 
elegant s}Tiagogue, put in it cushioned pews, rented them for an 
income ; built for Mm a palace so that he could have had the fashion- 
able church in the city, lived in luxury, received the praises of 
men, had little stations off yonder amiong the poorer elements to 
whom men were sent, by official appointment, to preach a theoretical 



340 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Grospel. If he had done that he would have heen a failure, and his 
fine synagogue, like many costly temples of to-day, would have been 
a failure. There are many church^, I fear, to-day, of whom the 
Master has written : ''Thou hast a name to live and art dead." Jesus 
could have saved himself much of his sorrow and toil. But had 
he done so he would have lost his cause. Either he or his cause had 
to he crucified. 

He was his plan in operation. He went among the masses, giving 
them the best of his thought, and the richest of his heart-power. 
Every man of wealth and station, who came in touch with Jesus, 
had to hunt him up and come to him. He did some things for 
centurions, and others of high position, but they sent for him. He 
did much for Xicodemus, but Nicodemus went to him. Jesus went 
to the people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, those who felt 
lifers burdens pressing them. He received sinners and ate with 
them. Mountains, vallej^s, boats, and streets were his pulpits. Jew 
and G-entile^ — all elements of humanity were the objects of his love 
and work — and the common people, literally, the many people, 
heard him gladly. 

There was divine wisdom in Jesus' plan. He did not give to the 
world a religion of classes. He did not give a gospel that appealed 
to classes. He excoriated sin in all classes. He rejoiced in righteous- 
ness in all classes. His gospel was the need of every soul in every 
class. Yet he went to the masses rather than to the palaces. The 
man in the palace in Galilee was worth no more to Jesus than the 
man in the boat on G-alilee's blue lake. Had he have taken up his 
time in the palaces the fishermen would never have paid any atten- 
tion to him. If, however, he should get the fishermen stirred up, 
the man in the palace would come down to the seashore presently 
to see what was going on. It has been the same way in every country 
since then, and is so to-day throughout the earth. The sooner we 
take this into account the sooner this world is going to be saved. 
Many of our large city churches are acting directly opposite to what 
Jesus did. Hence, they are a joke in the estimation of the masses 
of the people. Many churches are religious, social, or ethical clubs 
rather than gospel lighthouses. Thousands of churches are dead 
and dying of religious exclusiveness. That is, Christ's religion is 



JESUS^ THE WORLD^S GEEAT COMMONEE, 341 

excluded from them, and tbey are excluded from any power over 
the people. What the world needed in Jesns^ day was touch with 
God's heart. It got that through Jesus, and we are to stand in his 
name now as did his disciples as related in the Acts of tjie Apostles. 
Jesus could have remained in heaven and have poured banks of gold 
out to the sufferers of earth, but that would not have saved them. 
Then as now the world needed a heart to throb for it, with it, in it! 
What the world needed was not heaven's gold, but heavens Christ. 
Oh, brethren, let us take the Christ and translate him through our 
individual and church life, so that he shall still touch earth's masses ! 
Oh, breath of God, breathe in us anew the breath of the Christ ! 

JESUS A CONSTEUCTIVE WOEKEK 

Owing to Jesus' brain, moral nature, and broad sympathies with 
the masses^ he became the great constructive force in the human race. 
If you will, you may call him Love in illustration. Some so-called 
love destroys others to gratify itself. Christie love gives itself to 
save and build up the object of love. This force takes a youth, trans- 
forms him. It gives him an object to love ; takes his eyes and gives 
them a keener, milder vision; takes from them the dark side of life; 
takes his heretofore common companion and clothes her with a mag- 
netism to bi-m now irresistible ; it paints the' future with bright col- 
ors; it makes the world to him all new; fills it with new people; 
elegant homes; all the thoughts of it are pleasant; all the days 
are useful ; all the nighte are starry. He has been reconstructed ; he 
is a new creature. Love has made him' anew. That is what the 
Christ in us does. 

The Christ's soul within us does not create a small fairy world 
in a beautiful little castle all for our own selfish enjoyment. It 
seizes the habitable earth in its scope. Christ's hardest work has 
been the leveling of humanity. He must level it to lift it. Hu- 
manity, alwaysi, everywhere, outside of Christ, tries to live in a bar- 
ricaded castle. Apart from Christ, it is satisfied with its own 
baronetcy. When Christ came Greek hated Eoman, Eoman hated 
Greek, and the Jews hated aU the world outside of Judaism. Sia 
had built these walls of hatred. How terrible they were! Christ 
undertook to level them. He has not succeeded wholly yet, but 
reports great progress. 



342 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Our idea of missions has been too long that of a noble "self at 
this end of the line and a dirty, miserable savage at the other. 
Pharisaical! Christ^s idea is that at this end of the line a brother 
is tr5r[ng to help a dear brother at the other end of the line. To 
ChTist the world was a "brothery^^ — a home of brothers. He said : 
"Go into all the world ; tell every one." Suppose this idea had been 
emphasized through all the ages since then ? Instead of the world 
having been so often devastated by hatred — ^the destructive passion 
— we could now read a long, glorious chapter of love's labor not 
lost. We should not be reading how one nation destroyed another, 
only to be destroyed in its turn. Greece, with all her treasures, 
would still be ours; Eome would have lived till evaporated. Her 
greatness would have been builded on the foundations of peace and 
fraternity. The' Saxon would not have come forth conquering and 
to conquer, but would have marched as a brothcT among brethren, 
helping to analyze soil, control climate, air, fire, and all of nature's 
secret powers and glories, to harness them for the use of his brethren. 

No hellish whip 
Could cut the lip 

Of driven slave 
In cursed hand 

Of man or knave 
In any land. 
But every man 

A brother brave 
Would use his hand 

The world to save. 

It will thus be seen that Jesus was the world's benefactor. He 
had not a nation, nor banks of gold to back him, but he had truth 
and righteousness, and God to back him. With him the redeemed 
soul is the unit of earth's greatest society. Nor can the vast or- 
ganism ignore the unit. The aggregate is possible only by means 
of the units. The plea of Christ is hrotherism — that each indi- 
vidual shall take the whole of humanity into account, and try to 
his utmost ability to be a constructive force for humanity. Every 
one who can avert or dry a scalding tear from another's cheek is 
one of the world^s benefactors. If vou cannot reach vour silken 



JESUS, THE WOELD's GREAT COMIilOXEE. 343 

kerchief roimd the world, touch to the right, and have thy neigh- 
bor pass it on till eyery tear is dried. 

Eacli lion's wkelp in all the world 

To erery lion else is dear. 
The tiger from the lair is hurl'd 

By brother lion watching near. 
But what of every human child? 
Amid the tigers fierce and wild ? 
Each human to this earth is given 
To help make earth a place like heaven. 

EESULT3 

We have seen Jesus as to his brain-power, his heari^power, his 
purpose, and his plan. And in this vision of him we have seen 
him in his relation to sin, and to the fntnie destiny of the human 
race. Everywhere we have heard him speak, his voice sounded 
like that of a brother in sympathy and of God in majesty. The 
results of such a life on the thought of the world are too stu- 
pendous to be recounted. 

He predicted that, even though he should be lifted up, put to 
death, he would draw all men unto himself. Gradually that 
drawing has gone on until the human intellect has turned to him 
as the central figure, and to his words as the words with which to 
reckon. Turn to the world of science, and you find the scientists 
study the soil, the rocks, the air, the flowers, the animal life, and 
man in relation to this Christ. Turn to the historian, and he is 
writing the influence of this Christ on the lengthening march of 
the human race. Turn to the world-rulers of states, republics, 
empires, and kingdoms, and they are asking: What are Christ's 
teachings on the subject of government? Since Christ came to 
earth there has not been a really great poem of any considerable 
length which did not have Christ in it somewhere. Turn to the 
sociologist, and he is writing on man's relation to man in the 
light of what Christ said about it. Turn to the spiritualist, and 
he is trying to bolster his vagaries by something garbled from this 
Christ. Turn to the noveHst, and you will flnd that often Christ 
is dragged in to make it go. In the past few months over four mil- 



344 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

lions of "In His Steps^^ have been sold, The world is studying the 
Christ, writing the Christ, singing the Christ, talking the Christ. 
To think apart from him is to think falsely, and to have your 
thoughts condemned. To sing apart from Christ is to wail and 
lament., To' live apart from' the Christ is to die. To work apart 
from the Christ is to fail. These conclusions are the results of his 
brain, heart, and personality on the world. Sublimely and ma- 
jestically alone must he stand who has thus projected such an all- 
conquering, all-molding force into the realm of thought and life. 
Surely he is the Life, the Truth, the Way! 

The fact that he is thus so universally acknowledged^ however, 
must not be mistaken for universal obedience to him, nor to argue 
the complete adoption of his teachings. The unconverted world 
is bound to acknowledge that he is powerful and tO' be reckoned 
with, but it hates him because he is in the way of its unright- 
eous plans and methods. The conflict was possibly never deadlier 
than now. It has turned mainly in two directions. First. It 
has turned with renewed energy to the realm of impurity. Pos- 
sibly Satan was never more active and never more successful in 
turning the multitudes to immorality than now. Our large; cities 
wreak with the putreifaction of immorality. Satan is disputing 
Christ's teachings, and making society believe that it can be im- 
pure without any danger to the soul. Second. The opposition has 
turned to strengthen itself by deadlier forms of covBtousness. 
Men are selling their souls for money — yea, they are becoming 
legalized murderers for gold. Christ says: What will it profit a 
man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul ? 

DUTY 

What is our duty? It is in one word — faithfulness. During 
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow one of his soldiers, Julian Wyat, 
saw a carriage that had been destroyed in a skirmish. He went 
to it and found a dead governess, but a living child about six years 
old. The little one was almost frozen. He took her and warmed 
her back to life by his own warm heart. He cared for her ten- 
derly amid the tauntings of the soldiers, who said : "She is nearly 
dead, and is a lot of trouble; why don't you let her die?" He re- 



JESUS^ THE WOELD's GREAT COI^lilOXEE. 315 

plied: ^'We'Ve killed enougli already.*" Wheii ke could get a fur- 
loTigh he went to seek her home, which she had described to him. 
Her father was a great count of vast wealth. At last Julian 
found the home, and delivered Stephaine to the coiint and countess. 
Stephaine said: '"Papa, this is Jnlian: he saved my life I I want 
yon all to love him.'' The great count took Julian Wyat and gave 
Mm a brother's love and a magnificent home. Friends, up yonder 
is the great King. Out yonder are his perishing children. What 
they need is your warm, Christ-like h^rt to beat life into their 
hearts till you can bring them to the palace of their Father. And 
I read another story which endeth thus: •'Inasmuch as ye did it 
unto one of these little ones, ye have done it unto me.*" 



^ 



346 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXIX 
THE MINISTRY OF EECON^CILIATION 



By Thomas Jefferson Villers^ D. D., 
Indiana 

"But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, 
and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation." — II. Cor. 5: 18. 

WHEN we speak of reconciliation it implies that there has been 
a quarrel somewhere ; at least that the affection of one person 
has been estranged from the affection of another. Such a thought 
Panl here suggests . He speaks of an alienation between man and 
Grod, an estrangement which God sought to remove through the 
sacrificial love of Christ — ^that love which strove to express itself 
in the agony of the garden^ and was gathered up in the heart-broken 
cry of the cross. 

When offense has been given among men the one most blame^ 
worthy is expected to seek the pardon of the person offended. But 
in this reconciliation the surpassing love of God is shown in that he 
himself, the gTiiltless One, makes the first approach; even as the 
Master has taught us to do: "If thy brother sin against thee, go, 
show him his fault between thee and him alone." In adjusting 
differences between men, parties sometimes come together and shake 
hands as an indication that they are reconciled, while at heart they 
retain the old grudge, and when occasion brings feeling to the sur- 
face, the secret dislike, which has been housed in their bosoms, as- 
sumes its old-time rancor, and the two men stand face to face once 
more as open enemies. Not so when God and man are reconciled. 
Jesus has made it possible for God not only to forgive, but also to 
forget; not only, as quaint William Seeker said, to break the teeth 
of alienation by forgiveness, but also to pluck out its sting by f orget- 
fulness. And so there is a realness about this transaction which gives 




I miiEm, i. D. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON VILLERS Avas born at Centreville, Va., May 23, 
1861. Entering Marietta College, he obtained every prize for which he was 
permitted to compete — three as a scholar, two as an orator, and one as an 
essayist. The last part of his college course was taken at the University of 
Rochester, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class. The faculty 
published this statement : "The standings of the class of '85 have averaged 
higher than those of any preceding class; and one of its members, T. J. 
Villers, has obtained the highest standing ever given a graduate of the uni- 
versity." Three years later he graduated from the Rochester Theological 
Seminary. While pursuing his theological studies he was preaching con- 
stantly, the places ranging from the humblest mission stations to many of 
the largest churches in the denomination. In his senior year he was chosen 
by the students to represent them at the Inter- Seminary Missionary Alli- 
ance convened in Alexandria, Va., where he spoke on "The Relation of the 
dongo Free State to African Missions." On October 25, 1888, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Rose Stanley Merriam. She is the author of numerous poems 
and musical compositions, among them being "Chimes for Children's Day." 
Pastor Villers was ordained November 27, 1888, at Gloucester, Mass., 
where he served as pastor of the First Church for five years. Many valuable 
members were added. The young people were organized. The congrega- 
tions and Bible school grew till they became the largest in the history of 
the church. On December 3, 1893, he became pastor of the First Church, 
"Syracuse, New York. About five hundred new members were added in less 
than five years. Congregations overtaxed the auditorium. The Bible school 
increased to a membership of 1,600. A floating debt was paid and a new 
room was built for Sunday-school work. He began his present pastorate 
(First Church, Indianapolis) March 15, 1898. The same large crowds at- 
tend his ministry. Within the last year 145 new members were added. The 
church has two mission stations. The total membership is about 1,100. In 
1891 the University of Rochester conferred on him the degree of M. A. He 
has been frequently invited to speak at our colleges and universities, among 
them being the universities of Chicago, Rochester and Syracuse, McMaster 
and Denison, Shurtleif and Franklin Colleges, and Rochester Theological 
Seminary. At the May anniversaries of 1896 be spoke for the Missionary 
Union on "The Purpose of the Ages"; at those of 1900 for the Home Mis- 
sion Society on "Immigration a Providential Opportunity for Evangeliza- 
tion." In 1899 he preached the convention sermon of the Baptist Yoimg 
People's Union of America at Richmond, Va., on "The Chief Business of 
Life." He is a trustee of the Rochester Theological Seminary, and is presi- 
dent of the Indiana Baptist Convention. He has travelled in Europe, 
Egypt, and the Holy Land. 
(348) 



THE MIK^ISTRT OF EECOXCILIATIOlf. 349 

permanence to the friendship. "If any man is in Christ, he is a 
new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are be- 
come new. Bnt all things are of God, who reconciled ns to himself, 
through Christ, and gave nnto ns the ministry of reconciliation ; to- 
wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world nnto himself, not 
reckoning unto them their trespasses." 

The ministry of reconciliation is here presented as a twofold 
truth — ^the ministry which God committed to his Son, and the 
ministr}^ which God entrusts to his people. 

The mission of Christ, as a reconciler, was necessitated by man's 
alienation from God. Wherever sin exists, it is an isolating force. 
It tends to separate each man from every other. It built a wall of 
separation between Adam and God, then a middle wall of partition 
between Adam and his wife. For after man's first disobedience, not 
only did he tr}^ to hide himself from God, but he began to accuse his 
wife — ^the one whom Milton represents as saying so sweetly to her 
husband, just before sin disturbed their love : "With thee conversing 
I forget all time." 

Wicked works begin by estranging the feelings, an estrange- 
ment which, if harbored, soon hardens into hostility. ^TTou, being 
in time past alienated," Paul writes, "and enemies in your mind by 
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh 
through death, to present you holy and without blemish and un- 
reprovable before him." Alienated, then hostile — that is the 
natural order. One man injures another. The secret sense of self- 
blame severs him from that man. He does not want to see him. 
He will walk round a comer in order to avoid him. Isolation 
settles down into dislike, even into hatred. When a man sins, he 
thrusts a separating wedge between himself and God. He no 
longer feels comfortable in the presence of God. On the principle 
that we hate those whom we have injured, he comes to think that 
God is his enemy and then to feel that he himself is an enemy of 
God. Knowing, as the Buddhist proverb has it, that punishment 
must follow sin as the cartwheel follows the tread of the ox, and 
haunted by the thought of pursuing justice, the transgressor not 
infrequently turns defiantly, sets his mouth against the heavens, 
and opposes himself to all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; 



350 THE AMERICAlsT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

like Edgar Allan Poe, whose eonsummate conceit and nniceasing 
selfishness found expression in the satanic declaraition : ^^My 
whole nature utterly revolts at the idea that there is any being in 
this universe superior to myself." 

At the close of the eighteenth century thirty-six men in N"ew York 
formed themselves into a club. They met regularly for the avowed 
purpose of blaspheming God, deriding the church, and devising 
methods for damaging Christianity. In one of their awful meet- 
ings, after burning a Bible, they administered the Lord's supper 
to a dog. That night two of them died. Within three days three 
more were drowned.. Before five years had passed every member 
of that club had come to' a bad end. One froze to' death ; two' were 
starved; three m^et with fatal accidents; five committed suicide; 
seven were drowned ; seven were hung, and eight were shot ! Hor- 
rified at the sacrilege of such men, we comfort ourselvesi with the 
thought that they were exceptions. But in the first chapter of 
Eomans, Paul paints the Gentile world in colors quite as dark. 
The picture could hardly have been blacker if some imp had 
crawled up out of hell and daubed the canvas with colors mixed by 
devils. Look at the outline of the painting. Professing them- 
selves to be wise, they became fools. They refused to have God in 
their reprobate minds. They exchanged the truth of God for a 
lie. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the like- 
ness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed 
beasts, and creeping things. In the lusts of their senseless and 
darkened hearts they gave themselves up to uncleanness and vile 
passions. They were filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, 
covetousness, maliciousness. They were full of envy, murder, 
strife, deceit, malignity. They were whisperers, backbiters, haters 
of God, insolent, ha-ughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, dis- 
obedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, 
without natural affection, unmerciful. 

When mankind had reached this abysmal corruption, this atti- 
tude of enmity, God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
and as an offering for sin, that through the death of his Son his 
enemies might receive the reconciliation. The ministry of Jesus 
was prompted by the Father. He took the initiative. For all 



THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION". 351 

things are from Mm. The apostle has been speaking of the new 
creation. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. He has 
new thoughts, new motives, new aspirations, new ambitions — a new 
character. All these new things of the new man are from God, 
who reconciled ns to himself through Christ. God was in Christ, 
Paul immediately adds, restoring the world to his favor, not 
reckoning unto them their trespasses. On Calvary^s cross God him- 
self, dressed in the crimson robe of a dying Eedeemer, came down 
and courted our love. 

We must therefore rid ourselves of an idea which for centuries 
has disgraced theology, namelj^, that while Christ is all love, the 
Father is all justice. There are pictures of the Eomish church 
which represent the Virgin as interposing between the world and 
her angry Son. As he is about tO' hurl destruction upon some soul, 
she stands with imploring attitude pleading for the sinner. As if 
Christ is the person of fury, and Mary the person of mercy ! Have 
not some Protestants held a view quite as pernicioiis with reference 
to the Father and Son — looking upon the Father as desiring to 
punish, while the Son interposes to save ? Says Charnock : "He 
who once' quenched the violence of fire for the Hebrew children 
has also quenched the fire of God's anger against the sinner, those 
fires that were hotter than a furnace heated seven times.'' A 
statement misleading because wrongly worded. It is true that God 
is angry with sin, but he also loves the sinner. It is true that he 
is sin's eternal foe, but he is also the sinner's unfailing friend. It 
is true that he will punish with everlasting woe them that repent 
not, but it is also true that he is not T\^lling that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

In August, 1900, Fanny J. Crosby, the blind hymn writer, 
ninety years old, was led to the platform at Isrorthfield', that she 
might say a few words to the gathered throng. Eeferring to the 
absence of the great evangelist, she said: "A year ago, while I 
was on a visit to some friendte in Sydney, a gentleman was going 
to J^orthfield, and I said, ^When you come back, be sure to bring 
me a message from' Mr. Moody. Don't forget it.' He replied, 'I 
won't,' and when he returned, he told me that he went up to Mr. 
Moody and gave him my request. Mr. Moody looked at him for a 



352 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

nmnute, then said, ^Give her my love/ Oh, praise the LfOrd," ex- 
claimied the aged saint, "I am so glad I got that message.. I have 
hidden it in the very depths of my soul as a precious treasure, and 
by and by, when he and I meet in yonder blessed realm, he will 
remember it and so will I." That is God's sweetest message to 
men — "Give them my love." It is this love that Jesus came to 
reveal. It is this love that the gospel declares. Listen! "God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. God com- 
mendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us. Herein was the love of God manifested in 
us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that 
we might live through him. The love of God hath been shed 
abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. The Lord direct 
your hearts into the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of 
God. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." Oh, praise the Lord! I am so glad I have this message. 
I will hide it in the depths of my soul as a precious treasure. 

Consider what is involved in our restoration to God's favor. 
my soul, observe this astounding statement, that the sensitive and 
sinless Christ was made a mass of sin for me! "Him who Imew 
no sin," Paul says, Jesus who was guilty of no personal sin, him did 
God make "to be sin on our behalf" — treated him as a condemned 
person in our stead, "that we might become the righteousness of 
God in him" — ^that by being united to him we might be accounted 
righteous. When the brazen serpent was raised in the wilderness, 
there was life for a look. It was serpents that had bitten the 
people, and now on that pole it was a serpent that was lifted up — 
something which resembled the reptiles whose poisonous fangs the 
people had felt. So here. It was sin that had caused our trouble, 
and Christ, being made sin in our behalf, was lifted to the cross, 
that by the look of faith we might be healed. 

On the Day of Atonement, the Jewish highpriest, laying both his 
hands on the head of the scapegoat, confessed over him all the 
iniquities of Israel, in token that their sins were laid upon the head 



THE MIN'ISTEY OF EECOXCILIATIOi^'. 353 

of the goat. Theii a fit man took the sin-bearer, and leading him 
past green fields and lands of water, fijially turned him loose in. a 
desert land, and the goat bearing npon him all the iaiqnities of 
the people, and haviag a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet cloth 
fastened to his horns, wandered on through the wilderness to die 
alone in a land of separation. Isaiah tells us that the Lord laid 
upon Jesus the iniquity' of us all. Behold, says John, the Lamb of 
Grod that lifteth up and beareth away, not the sins, but the sin of 
the world, as if all our transgressions were massed together in one 
huge load and then laid upon him ! He was led by the Holy Spirit 
toward the land of separation, as he had been led by the same 
Spirit into the wilderness. Alone amid the olives of Grethsemane ! 
"Could ye not watch with me one hour ?" Alone in the judgment 
hall ! All the disciples forsook him and fled. Alone on the cross ! 
"My G-od, my G-od, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Alone in a land 
of separation! In that land where no man can find them, Jesus 
left our sins, so that now there is nothing between God and us to 
cause his face to be hidden or our heart to be troubled. Let us 
leave our sins where Christ left them. Let us not be dragging them 
back into memory and doubting about his pardon. Let us leave 
them there forever — off there in the land of separation, where the 
Lamb of God carried them, that we might be introduced into the 
fellowship of heaven. This was the ministry which God com- 
mitted to his Son. 

There is here also a second thought — the ministry which God 
entrusts to his people. He not only reconciled us to himself 
through Christ, but gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. 
Successors of Christ in this holy office I Was ever mortal man 
so highly honored? While laboring in India, Felix Carey was 
loaded with civil honors. That he might be sent as Burmese am- 
bassador to the governor-general, he withdrew from the Christian 
mission in 1814. His father, with a breaking heart, wrote home 
to Dr. Eyland, saying : "Felix has shriveled from a missionary into 
an ambassador." To Carey the highest earthly office was an utter 
degradation, if to fill that office an ambassador of Christ forsook 
his heavenly calling. 

This ministry, this embassy, about which Paul speaks, may 



354 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

have primary reference to himself and Titus, but it applies with 
equal force to all who have obtained a like precious faith. If the 
word of reconciliation has reached yonr hearts, yon too may say: 
"We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though 
God were entreating by ns." We read in the Acts that when 
Stephen suffered martyrdom there arose that day a great perse- 
cution against the Church at Jerusalem; and they were all 
scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the 
apostles. They therefore that were scattered abroad — not the 
apostles, for they stayed at Jerusalem, but the laymen, the rank 
and file of the church, they that were scattered abroad went about 
preaching the word., 

Our message, as ambassadors, is here plainly given. It is not 
politics, or sociolog}^ It is not literature, or science. It is not 
the popular topics of business, or society. Paul told Timothy that 
the time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine; 
but, having itching ears, would heap to themselves teachers after 
their own lusts. If churches have itching ears they can always 
find teachers and preachers who are willing to scratch their ears. 
But ear-seratchers are not ambassadors. In this ministry of re- 
conciliation we have but one message — ^the word of reconciliation. 
God has committed it to us; or as the apostle says, God has 
deposited it in us; as if it is a sacred treasure, which we are to 
preserve carefully, and bear faithfully to others. 

When Paul entered Corinth on his mission of reconciliation he 
was opposed and ridiculed. To the Greeks his preaching was 
foolishness; to the Jews it was a stumbling-block. The disputa- 
tious, rhetoric-lo\dng Greeks said that his speech was contemptible; 
while the Jews, with bitter and bigoted prejudice, contested every 
step of his advance and compelled him to speak the gospel of God 
in much conflict. One night, after a day of depressing toil, when 
there had been little to cheer his soul, Jesus appeared to him in a 
vision, saying: "Be not afraid, but speak." The word which 
Christ used is significant. It is not the term for a formal, set dis- 
course. It suggests the simplest form of human language. It 
means merely to talk. Our Lord did not want Paul to sugar-coat 
his message with poetic, rhetorical descriptions of the glor}^ of 



THE IMIXISTEY OF RECOXCILIATIOX. 355 

Corinth^s two seas, flecked with white sails from many lands; the 
pageant of islands and mountains and groves of c}^ress and pine 
bathed in the glow of Grecian sunsets. He wanted him just to talk 
the gospel. At the apostle's feet lay the blue waters of the ^Egean. 
Jesus did not want him to prepare learned disquisitions, whose 
profundity would equal the unplumbed sea, like the minister who 
was said to be invisible six da3''s in the week and incomprehensible 
on the seventh. Christ only wanted Paul to talk the gospel. In 
the distance gleamed the snowy summit of Helicon, whose muses 
had inspired Hesiod and his school of writers. Jesus did not want 
Paul, with a head as cold and a vocabulary as icy as Helicon^s 
summit, to show the Corinthians that he was as cultured as them- 
selves. He wanted Paul just to talk the gospel. Towering within 
sight stood two-peaked Parnassus, whose side poets had climbed 
for inspiration. Jesus did not want Paul to give the impression 
that his inspiration had been kindled on Parnassus, lest coming with 
the enticing words of man's wisdom his message should be made 
of none effect. He wanted Paul simply to talk the gospel. 

beloved, this is what the church and the world need to-day — 
not more clergymen to expound this gospel of reconciliation, but 
more men and women to talk it; talk it in the home, talk it in 
the office, talk it in the factor}^, talk it in the store, talk it on the 
streets, talk it on the farm — ^talk it everywhere. Suppose people 
call us babblers. That is what the Athenians called Paul. Jesus 
said: "Be not afraid; keep talking." Suppose they say that our 
speech is contemptible. That is what the Corinthians said of Paul. 
Jesus said: '^e not afraid; keep talking." Suppose they tell us 
that the spirit of the age demands something more scientific and 
philosophical than we can give them. Jesus says : "Be not afraid ; 
keep talking." Suppose they affirm that the old gospel will not do 
in these modem days, that it must be refined and intellectualized, 
trimmed and lopped and polished and perfumed. Jesus says : "Be 
not afraid; keep talking." Our courage must take the form of 
speech, in spite of opposition, or laughs, or sneers. 

It is profoundly significant that when the Holy Ghost came on 
the day of Pentecost, he appeared in the shape of a tongue, which 
sat not only on the apostles, but on each member of the church; 



356 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and when that tongue of fire touched them, they began to speak as 
the Spirit gave them utterance. By that expressive symbol God 
would teach us that it is by the tongues of his people that this 
word of reconciliation is to be published. We may try to excuse our 
silence by saying that actions speak louder than words; and so if 
our life is right, speech is unnecessary. Jesus does not say so. 
He says: "Thou art my ambassador; speak, and hold not thy 
peace." It is true that the life may be eloquent, and ought to be. 
It is true that words without works are like faith without works — 
dead. But no excuse that we can frame will satisfy Christ for 
our dumbness. More than once he healed men who were possessed 
by dnmb dtevils. It must grieve him that so many of his people in 
these modern days are similarly afflicted. Brother, if you have a 
dumb spirit, let Christ cast it out, that the string of your tongue 
being loosed, you may speak the reconciling word. 

When Henry Drummond first visited America he was invited 
to dine with Longfellow and Holmes. These authors he had ad- 
mired from his youth. But away by Lake Erie were two other men, 
engaged in evangelism. Only five days remained before Drum- 
mond^s vessel sailed. If he waited for that dinner in Boston he 
would miss seeing Moody and Sankey; and with the words, "I 
am one of those who think that the world is not djmg for poets 
as much as for preachers," he set off for Cleveland. The world is 
not dying for po^ets, but it is dying for preachers — preachers of 
the Moody and Sankey stamp; neither of them ordained, but both 
of them foreordained; one with a consecrated voice singing the 
word of reconciliation into discordant lives, the other by his 
headlong talk, talking it into human hearts. 

The motive of our ministry is here mentioned. It is the love 
of Christ. It matters little whether this means Christ's love to us, 
or our love to him. The two suppose and interfuse each other. 
The love of Christ, Paul says, constraineth us; because we thus 
judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for 
all, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but 
unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. The word 
rendered "constrained^' means to compress. The love of Christ 
holds us irresistibly to one aim, as it held Robert McAll when he 



THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. 357 

stood in the streets of Paris, beginning his mission among the 
French. He could speak only two sentences in the language of 
the people, but those two sentences were pulsating with the very 
life and spirit of the gospel. They were these: "God loves you;" 
and "I love you." Constrained, impelled, urged on, held fast by 
the love of Christ, we are sent to those yet in enmity against G-od, 
to love them into fellowship with him. 

The method of our ministry — ^that also is specified. It is by 
persuasion, entreaty, beseechings. The apostle says, "We persuade 
men," "G-od is entreating by us," "We beseech you on behalf of 
Christ." In this same chapter he dieclares that we must all be 
m;ade manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one 
may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath 
done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the fear 
of the Lord, we persuade men. We do not threaten, or denounce, 
or seek to terrify, but we plead with them tenderly. Hence the 
tears of Jeremiah, who exclaimed : "Oh that my head were waters, 
and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night 
for the slain of the daughters of my people." Hence the tears of 
Paul, who by the space of three years went from house to house 
in Ephesus, admonishing every one night and day with tears. 
Hence the tears of Jesus, who broke out into loud weeping over 
Jerusalem; and in the garden, under the awful pressure of the 
world^s load of guilt, offered up prayers and supplications with 
strong crying and tears. If Jeremiah and Paul and Jesus wept 
over lost men, we need not be ashamed if our earnest persuasion 
manifests itself in weeping. 

When Eichard, the lion-hearted, was returning from Palestine, 
he rode overland with a single attendant day and night until he 
reached Vienna. There he was arrested by Leopold, Duke of 
Austria. The duke meanly sold his captive to the emperor of 
G-ermany, Henr}^ VL, who kept his prisoner securely chained. It 
was rumored in England by Prince John, intriguer for the throno, 
that the king had died in captivity. But during the thirteen 
months and two weeks of his confinement, his faithful servant kept 
going from prison to prison, seeking his master. When refused 
admission, he would sit down before the door, and with his instru- 



358 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ment play one of Eicliard's favorite tunes, and then listen for a 
response. Taking the harps of God, and with persuasive melody in 
our hearts, we are to go to those who are in prison, to vice and 
ignorance and enmity, assured that as we touch the strings of 
gospel music, the Spirit of Christ will waken a response in the 
hearts of the prisoners, and woo them into the liberty of the glory 
of the children of Grod. 

Some of you are not Christians.. You are not reconciled to God. 
By my Lord^s death every barrier to your pardon has been re- 
moved from God's mind. But there are obstacles in your own 
heart. You have never repented. You have never believed. God 
is reconciled to you; but 3^ou are not reconciled to him. How can 
I entreat you in Christ's stead? How can I beseech you in 
language such as Jesus would use? Would that Spurgeon were 
here! He could rightly represent my Master. He would say, as 
he once said: "By such need of a Savior as you will feel in the 
pangs of a parting life, when the pulsings shall be few and feeble, 
till with a gasp you shall expire ; by the resurrection when you will 
awake, if not in his likeness, to everlasting shame and contempt; 
by the judgment seat, where your sins will be published, and you 
will be called to account for the deeds done in the body; by the 
heaven you will lose, and by the hell into which you will fall; by 
eternity, that dread eternity, whose years never waste; by the 
wrath to come, whese burning indignation will never cool; by the 
immortality of your own souls, by the perils 3^ou now run, by the 
promises 3'ou despise, by the provocations you multiply, by the 
penalties you accumulate, I beseech you to be reconciled to God." 

"I beseech you as though God did beseech you, and I do it on be- 
half of Christ. Jesus is no more an ambassador. He has gone to 
heaven. I, dare I say it? stand in His stead to-da}^, not to make 
peace, but to proclaim it. How can I picture my Lord standing 
here? My imagination is not equal to the task. Would that I 
had S}anpathy enough with him to put m3^self in his place, so as to 
use his words. Methinks I see him looking at you as he looked 
at the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He glances over each of these 
pews, then lifts his eyes to the galleries, then bursts into tears, 
saying: ^How often would I have gathered you with great mercy. 



THE MINISTRY OF REOONCILIATION". 359 

but je would not.' I think I see him as he looks at you again; 
and when he observes some hearts so obdurate and callous that 
they will not melt, he unwraps has mantle, and exclaims, ^See 
here!' Do you mark the gash in his side? As he lifts his hands 
and shows the nail-prints, and points downward to his pierced 
feet, he says, ^By these, my wounds, which I endured when suffer- 
ing for you, my people, return unto me; come, bow at my feet, 
and take the peace which I wrought out for you. Oh, be not faith- 
less, but believing ! Doubt no longer ! God is reconciled ! Tremble 
no more! Peace is established! Toil no more at the works of the 
law; cling not to your doings. Cease to consult your feelings. It 
is finished. When I bowed my head upon the tree, I finished all 
for you. Take salvation ; take it now V " 

"I have no more words. Oh, let these tears plead with you. 
Do lay hold of this good hope, for your time is short! Death is 
hastening on ; eternity is near ! Do lay hold of it, for hell is hot. 
Lay hold of it, for heaven is bright, and the harps of angels are 
sweet. Lay hold of it ! It will make your heart glad, it will charm 
away your fears, and remove your griefs ! Lay hold of it ! It will 
bear you safe through Jordan's billows. Oh, by the love of the 
Father, by the blood of Jesus, by the love of the Spirit, I beseech 
you, believe and live ! By the cross and thie five wounds, by the 
agony and bloody sweat, by the resurrection and by the ascension, 
believe and live ! By every argument that would touch your nature, 
by every motive that can sway your reason or stir your passions, 
in the name of God that sent me, by the eternal Son that redeemed 
you, by the gift of the Holy Spirit who strives with you, I command 
you to be reconciled to God." 

Jenny Lind, who gave to the world the one perfect and sublime 
revelation of the beauty and ecstasy of music, but who, in her 
humilit}^, declared that if she could obtain only the last place in 
the choir of heaven she would rejoice with holiest joy, was sitting 
late one afternoon on the beach of the salt, unplumbed, estranging 
sea. In her lap lay an open Bible. Lifting her eyes from its 
pages, she was bending her gaze across the restless waters toward 
the slow descending sun, when a lady friend, approaching her, 
exclaimed: "0 Madame Goldschmidt, how could you ever leave 



360 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the stage?" With one hand resting on her Bible, and the other 
pointing toward the setting sun, she replied: "How could I do 
otherwise, when it made me neglect this, and forget that?" By 
the word of reconciliation which yon have neglected, and by the 
solemnity of lifers sunset, which, though forgotten, you soon will 
experience, I pray you in Christ's stead, turn from the enmity of 
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and be reconciled 
to God. 



LA'JllAX AUGUSTUS CRAXDALL was born in South Plxinouth, X. Y., 
in 1850, a son of Eev. J. j\I. Crandall, who is still in the active ministry at 
Lestershire, X. Y. He received the training which fitted him for college at 
"\Vhilesto\-sai Seminary, Xew York. He also pursued studies at the State 
College of Pennsylvania, and was graduated at Hillsdale College, Mich., in 
1873. The scene of his first pastoral labor was in a coimtry church near 
llacine, Wis., and later in Xew York. His early experience in the pastorate 
showed him his need of more thorough training, and he entered Rochester 
Theological Seminarj^, from which he was graduated in 1881. From this 
time on his rise in the ministry'' Avas steady. He was settled as pastor in 
Owego, X. Y., 1881-'84. He served as pastor of the Twenty-third- Street 
Church, Xew York city, 1884-'89, and then went to the strong church at 
Euclid avenue, Cleveland, where he remained from 1889 to 1892. He then 
accepted the pastorate of the Memorial Church, Chicago, over which he still 
presides, and where his work during nine years has been greatly blessed. 
The church has taken a strong position among the religious forces of the 
great metropolis. Its members are recognized as an intelligent body of 
Christian men and Avomen, and recently it has built one of the most beauti- 
ful and convenient houses of worship owned by any Baptist church in the 
West. Through all his ministry Dr. Crandall's course has contradicted the 
nonsensical belief that ministers are poor financiers. At OAA^ego the church 
raised, during his pastorate, a debt of $12,000. During his period of ser- 
vice at Xew York a debt of $40,000 was-raised, and in Chicago the expendi- 
ture for the new house of worship will represent at least $60,000. ''There 
are many good preachers among the Baptists; there are many excellent men 
in the Baptist ministry; there are many efficient administrators of denomi- 
national affairs," says Mr. J. S. Dickerson, editor of The Standard, of Chi- 
cago, "but there are comparatively few men in whom all three of these 
qualities are to be found. Dr. Lathan A. Crandall, Avhose sermon appears 
in this volume as representative of the ministry of Hlinois, is one of this 
sort of all round men; one Avhose ability as a preacher has been demon- 
strated by his service in some of the leading pulpits in the denomination. 
Every one who knows him is ready to call him friend, while denominational 
organizations of every sort have sought his advice and counsel in carrying- 
on their work." Dr. Crandall is not only loved by all who knoAV him, but 
has been honored by positions of trust in the denomination, and Hillsdale 
College in 1889 gave him the degree of D. D. These few words convey only 
an outline representation of one of the most efficient of pastors and one of 
the most lovable of men. He spent the summer of 1901 in European travels. 
(361) 




mm L mmmiL i. 



OUE FATHEK^S KINGDOM. 363 



XXX 

OTJE FATHEE^S KINGDOM 



By Lath an Augustus Crandall^ D. D., 
Illinois 

"Thy kingdom come."— Matt. 6: 10. 

THE teacMng of Jesus centres in tlie kingdom of God. When 
lie leaves tlie carpenter shop at iSTazareth and breaks the long- 
brooding silence, by his first word he declares that "the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand.^^ During the forty days between his rising 
from the dead and his ascension into heaven he talks with his dis- 
ciples of the things concerning the kingdom. The three years of 
public ministr}^ are crowded to overflowing with parables, parable- 
germs, and didactic addresses by which he seeks to impress upon 
others the thought uppermost in his own heart. In the mountain 
instruction he defines the righteousness of the kingdom, exalts it 
to the first and largest place in the heart, and holds it forth as the 
priceless possession of those who are humble and who suffer for 
his sake. When he sends forth the twelve, the message which they 
are to bear is the same as that which fell from his lips when first he 
spake out of his heart to the hearts of men. Questioned by the 
Pharisees as to the time when this kingdom should appear, he 
teaches them that it will not come with observation, but is already 
in the midst of them. In immortal pictures, which we call parables, 
he sets forth the nature, the law, and the growth of the kingdom 
which he has come to establish. 

And Jesus not only preached the kingdom, defined its require- 
ments, illustrated its developments, but he prayed for it. In that 



364 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

prayer which is the rich heritage of all believers, he lodged his peti- 
tion that Grod's kingdom might come. It is to be a kingdom here 
and now ; one in which the will of the King is perfectly done. This 
is the one universal element in onr Lord's prayer., The rest is 
largely local or personal ; this includes the world. Almost nineteen 
centuries have passed since Jesus uttered these words, and their 
fulfilment is not yet. The months have grown into years, and the 
years into centuries, and still the day when G-od^'s will shall be done 
in earth as it is in heaven seems far distant. The coming of that 
da}^ waits for the full measure of Christian devotion. Professed 
disciples have bickered over rituals and vestments and forms of 
words. Time and strength which should have been devoted to the 
building of the kingdom have been given to the rearing of eccle- 
siastical structures in which, when done, G-od would not dwell. 
Multitudes have fancied that they could save their souls in some 
other way than by becoming loyal citizens of the kingdom of heaven, 
and so have ignored the teaching of Jesus and accepted the inven- 
tions of men. But now, in the last days of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, men are coming as never before to study what Jesus said con- 
cerning the kingdom of God. As never before we are coming to 
recognize the supreme importance of devotion to the Christian idea, 
and as never before this idea is pressing upon the consciences of 
men. Let us turn our attention, then, to the law and the growth of 
that kingdom which Jesus came to establish, and in the interests of 
which we are gathered. 

THE LAV^ OF THE KINGDOM 

The word law, as used in this connection, is offensive to not a 
few earnest Christians. They contend that for those who have been 
bom of the Spirit of God, and have become in very truth citizens of 
the heavenly kingdom, there is no such thing as law. "We are 
not under law,'' say they, ^T^ut under grace. We have transcended 
law; have rendered it unnecessary and inoperative; have annihi- 
lated it." And there is a measure of reasonableness in their con- 
tention. The law against theft presses not upon the one who has 
no desire to steal. The pure in heart feel not at all the constraint 



OUR FATHER^S KINGDOM. 365 

of the law against impurity. Perfection in Christian living would 
transform all duty into privilege, and make the expression of law 
Tiimeeessar}'. But not all men are within the kingdom, and law 
must exist as conditioning entrance. N'ot all citizens of the king- 
dom have reached perfection, and until they do, divine law must 
be their corrective, and guide, and standard. G-od has his will con- 
cerning us, and the echo of that will in the human soul is the 
sense of obligation. The will of God expressed in Jesus Christ con- 
ditions entrance into and existence in the kingdom which he has 
established, and this expressed will is our law. 

Jesus has summarized this law in one word, love. Listen, and 
you will hear coming down to us across the centuries the voice of 
one who spake as never man spake : "A new commandment I give 
unto you, that ye love one another." Again he speaks and sums up 
all that is essential in divine legislation: "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thy- 
self." Once more he opens his lips to utter that word which must 
forever stand as the supreme test of the Christ-like temper: "Ye 
have heard that it was said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate 
thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies." Have we 
come to a place where obedience to these commandments costs no 
effort? Do we involuntarily and instinctively love God with all 
our hearts, our neighbors as ourselves? Do we find nothing hard 
in the word which bids us love our enemies ? Until we reach that 
place these commandments must stand as the law of the kingdom 
of God. 

In the presence of this law, good and earnest men declare that 
Jesus has asked the impossible. Desirous of rendering full 
obedience to all the demands of G-od, they assert that they cannot 
love the unlovely. Is there not a prevalent misconception as to that 
which Jesus requires in his law of love? We look into our hearts 
and find there a great and deathless affection for kindred and 
friends. This affection is spontaneous, involuntary, emotional. It 
fiUs all the inner chambers of the heart with light and joy. No 
effort of ours created or sustains it. Then we look outward and 



366 THE AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

see a man vicious, depraved, loathsome, and by him stands another 
whose false word or dishonest deed has brought us loss and suffer- 
ing, and we fancy that Jesus demands in us and from us the same 
instinctive and warm affection for these repulsive beings as that 
we give to the dear ones in our home. But Jesus does not ask this. 
It should be remembered that our one word "love^^ is made to do 
duty for two words as used by Jesus. These two words differ in 
significance. One holds in itself the idea of choice, and has its 
roots in the will. The other stands for inclination prompted by 
emotion. It is a most significant fact that never did our Lord use 
this latter word in connection with a commandment. When he 
commands us to love our enemies, when he commands love for any 
one or anything, he speaks to the will and demands of it a choice. 
'*^Set before you,^^ he says, '^'^the supreme good of this man, be he 
ever so repulsive, be he even your enemy, and seek for it as you 
would for your own.'^ So he takes love for our enemies out of the 
field of emotions, and places it where alone it can have an exist- 
ence, in the domain of our volitions. It sometimes happens that 
emotional love follows where rational love leads the way. We 
begin by serving the highest interests of the wicked and repulsive 
because we ought, and, with a growing sense of their wretchedness 
and want, we are seized upon by tenderness and sjonpathy, until our 
hearts throb with something of that yearning which filled the heart 
of Jesus as he looked down from the hill-top upon the city which 
rejected him. 

The test of membership in the kingdom is found in obedience 
to this law of love. There are many forms through which love 
expresses itself, but it has no equivalent. The oath of allegiance 
to Almighty G-od is meaningless and vain if we are disloyal to love. 
The world is slow to believe this. Through all the Christian cen- 
turies men have grasped at substitutes for this one essential and' 
comprehensive requirement. Believe? We give full and unquali- 
fied assent to the historic creeds of the church. Acknowledge the 
Lordship of Jesus Christ? Hear us as at all times and in every place 
we call him Lord, Lord. Own him before the world? We have 
publicly confessed him in baptism and are members of a Christian 



OUR father's kingdom. 367 

clixLrch. Pray? Wot a day passes but we petition God for the 
coming of Ms kingdom. All this is important, but it is not 
enough. Hearken to the words of the greatest disciple of all these 
Christian centuries: "If I speak with the tongues of angels and 
of men and have not love, I am become sounding brass or a 
clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know 
all mysteries and all knowledge: and if I have all faith so as to 
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I 
bestow all my gifts to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be 
burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Love is not 
only the greatest thing in the world, but without it no man can be a 
citizen of the heavenly kingdom. No matter how much he prays, 
no matter what his position, if he loves not he is not God^s child. 
It is easier to do something else than this; easier to pray than to 
forgive; easier to give ahns than to give love; but prayers and 
alms take on significance and value only when they represent love 
to God and our fellow-men. 

In the persistent tendency to stop short of giving the uttermost 
that Jesus has asked is the weakness of the church of Christ. We 
are ever striving to crook and twist the plain teaching of our Lord, 
that we may adjust it to^ our own selfishness. Look at the beautiful 
homes in which we dwell; at the vast business enterprisesi which 
Christians control; at the enormous wealth in Christian hands. 
Then think of the swarming millions who know not of Christ; of 
the masses of men and women and children in our great cities 
whose lives are untouched by the gospel of the Son of God; of the 
constant and imperative need of more men and more means for the 
evangelization of the world. Think you these things would be if 
we in very truth loved our neighbors as ourselves ? We have reduced 
an essential law to a flimsy theory ; a positive precept to a hypothesis, 
and we do not work even the hypothesis. When year after year 
our benevolent societies are forced to report disheartening deficits, 
we solemnly search for the causes and find them in hard times, 
the apathy of the pastors, or lack of wise methods. The trouble lies 
deeper, brethren and fathers, than lack of leadership. It is lack of 
love. If the Baptists of America would for one year honestly try 



368 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

to keep the law of love, the experience of that year would be a reve- 
lation to the world. When we have fnlfilled this law of Christ 
there will be no lack of monej^ for God^s work, and no nook or 
comer of this world but will be occupied by those who preach and 
live the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

But it costs to love. Love is evermore vicarious. We cannot keep 
the law of Jesus Christ and save our ease and leisure and money. 
That which Matthew Arnold calls "The secret of Jesus^^ must be 
learned by us through personal experience if we would be sons of 
Grod. We shall find life only as we lose it., Love has its type in 
Jesus Christ and it will lead us as it led him, to sorest battle with 
temptation, to Gethsemanes of struggle, to Calvarys of suffering. 
But in these and through these man comes to his fullest stature and 
to his highest joy. The path of service is the way to the throne, 
and through death to self we find life eternal. It is said that as 
the dowager empress of Germany was visiting one of the Berlin 
hospitals, she noticed a poor woman whose face was covered with 
tears, holding in her arms a fretful child. The kind-hearted em- 
press asked the woman the cause of her sorrow, and found that the 
husband and father was dying in one of the wards, and that the 
woman could not visit him because of her crying child. Then this 
mother of a king, first lady of the realm, reached out her arms, 
and for two hours cared for the wailing child, while the wife and 
the dying husband said their final farewells. Was ever this queen 
more queenly than in rendering tliis lowly service? The kingliest 
man in all the world is he who loves most and serves best his fellow- 
men. 

Ah ! when shall all men's good 

Be each man's rule, and universal peace 

Sit like a shaft of light across the land, 

And like a lane of beams athwart the sea 

Thro' all the circle of the golden years ? 

THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM 

Growth will be secured in just the measure that the law of the 
kingdom becomes incarnate in life. As love for God and men 
grows more intense in your breast and mine, the prayer of our 



OUR pather's kingdom. 369 

Lord is finding its answer. As lives that have been self-centered 
come under the dominance of this law, the kingdom of God 
adrances. The increase of love's sway over hnmanity is the only 
accurate index of the kingdom's growth. And love is not only the 
standard of attainment but the agent of accomplishment. It has 
truthfully been said. ••'If men can be made to believe in our love for 
them, they are well on the road to believe in the love of God.'' Love 
constrains now as when Je^us walked upon the earth. Love sub- 
dues the sinful and rebellious now as when Peter, looking into the 
tender eyes of his Ma-ster, went out to weep penitent tears over his 
great transgression. 

But there is not perfect agreement among those who seek to bring 
in the kingdom, as to method. The claim is made that we are 
unwise in directing our energies towards the salvation of the 
individual so largely as we do. when it is social salvation that the 
world needs. Society is being studied as never before, and students 
of the present social order tell us that it is vicious and unchristian. 
Of the fact there can be no question. Evils great and dangerous 
exist in our so-caUed Christian civilization. Our political insti- 
tutions are seriously affected, if not largely controlled by dema- 
gogues whose sole aim is their own profit. In business life men 
are pitted against each other in a competition which knows no 
law but that of might. In crowded sweat-shops human blood is 
coined into money. Men search in vain for work, while their 
children cry for bread. Young girls seU. their labor for a pittance 
so small that multitudes are led to seU their souls and bodies as weU, 
that they may be clothed and fed. Little children are born into 
conditions which deprave and corrupt, and grow up to swell the 
already great criminal class. IMiUions of our feUow-beings in this 
Christian land live in a starless night, prayerless, joyless, hopeless. 
Class distinctions increase and strengthen, and instead of brother- 
hood is suspicion and ill-disguised hatred. Xo wonder that the cry 
goes up to heaven •''How long. Lord, how long I'' These are not 
imaginary iUs, the creations of dreamy sentimentalists, but awful 
realities. The Christian church is unworthy of her Lord and 
recreant to her trust if she refuses to recognize these evils or fails 



370 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

to attempt their correction. Eedemption is not only for one bnt 
for all ; not alone for the indlvidnal but for the world. The religion 
of Jesus Christ is intended to correct the evils in institutions, 
society, the state. Sin is no less sin because many engage in it. 
That which is wrong for one man is not right for ten acting 
together. 

But when we ask ourselves how society is to be redeemed, the only 
answer which will stand the test of reason and experience is^ "By 
redeeming the units of society." In the final analysis corporate sin 
and corporate salvation are only the aggregation of individual sin 
and individual salvation.. Any change in society is simply the sum 
of individual changes. When the pioneer fells the forest he does it 
tree by tree. If we turn men to God they must be reached one 
by one. G-reat good has been accomplished by men and women of 
altruistic temper who have gone to live among the poor, the 
ignorant, and the wretched. Life has been widened and sweetened 
for the objects of this unselfish ministry. But no work of large 
and abiding value for these peoples has been accomplished except 
their hearts as well as their environments have been changed. In 
a certain ward of one of our great cities is a social settlement 
under the supervision of a woman of rare unselfishness and strength 
of character. Years of self-sacrificing labor bore fruit in gratifying 
changes in outward conditions. The people of the neighborhood 
seemed to be won not only to friendship for the institution, but as 
reliable friends of good government. And yet, when a few weeks 
ago an election was held for alderman in this ward, and all the 
influence of this settlement was thrown against a candidate whose 
name is synonymous with all that is vicious and dishonest, the very 
men who had been thought to be the fine fruitage of this good work 
openly sold themselves and their votes to this enemy of righteousness. 
No change is radical which does not reach the heart. The divine 
law is immutable, "Ye must be bom again." But beginning with 
the individual we go on to save the world. It is the supreme 
business of the church of Christ to reproduce his spirit in all men 
and so in all institutions. We begin with one but stop only with 
all. We have some things to learn from modern social methods. 



OUE FATHZB'S KIXGDOZ^. 371 

The **friendlY visitor" should be Christian as weU as pliilanthropic. 
The church must care more and yet more for the physical man as 
did its Lord. Organized Christianity must somehow come int^ 
closer and more vital contact with the ^'submerged tenth.'* Incar- 
nate Christianity must be brought to bear directly upon the non- 
Christian peoples of the world, for -'•'ChTistianity is more than a 
message, it is a living, saving influence." 

The truth which lies in individualism may easily be over- 
emphasized, until we become blinded not only to the importance of 
social reforms, but to the fact that the growth of the kingdom of 
God is the growth of an organism. We are units indeed, but units 
in a body of which each is a member with functions. The old cry 
has been for independence ; the newer and diviner call is for inter- 
dependence. As so often happens the new is the old. and in seek- 
ing iater-relations we but revert to the primitive conception of the 
kingdom. ^Tor as we have many members in one body, and all 
members have not the same office, so we being many are one body 
in Christ, and memljers one of another.^^ This Pauline gospel 
of the first century is as vitally important for Americans as it was 
for the Ephesians to whom he wrote, and quite as sorely needed. 
The tree yonder has roots and bark, and branches, and tvrigs and 
leaves, but it is one tree. The kiagdom of God has many interests 
and expresses itself in many phases, but it is a single entity. As we 
come to feel the full force of this fact, no interest of the kiiigdom 
will be unimportant to us. Our special field of labor may be in 
America ; but India will be m our hearts and the dwellers in African 
forests will be blessed by our benefactions. We may have peculiar 
and strong interest in Christian work in China; but the unevan- 
geHzed of our home land will l->e within the boundaries of our love 
and persistent endeavors. Let us not pit one interest of the king- 
dom against another, or become such partisans of one sect or one 
society that we refuse sympathy and support to other agencies for 
doing the work of God. Let the vision broaden to take in all the 
world, and the heart enlarge until there is no man and no interest 
of humanity outside its love and devotion. Then shall we no longer 
beg to be excused from help in the work yonder bec<iuse we are 



372 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

working here; then shall "foreign" and "home" be no longer 
divisive words; then shall every disciple obey the last order of our 
Captain and become a missioner to all the world. 

Let us not forget that the kingdom is a growth, and not a 
creation, and that long abiding things grow slowly. How gladly 
would we see nations bom in a day, and the world evangelized in 
this generation. We ought to labor as those who seek immediate 
and great results. But if when we have sown there appears no 
answering harvest still are we to sow the seed. All the past teaches 
us to take long-time views of the kingdom and its progress. Men 
are not hungry for the gospel. The heathen are not stretching out 
hands of appeal to us. ISTow, as when Jesus taught upon the earth, 
the many hear but heed not. It is only little by little that we drive 
out the enemy and come into possession of the land. Because of 
this, and because sometimes our work seems all in vain, the hearts 
of many grow faint, and their faith fails them. Let us not forget 
the law of growth. The oak never leaps full grown from the 
acorn, never goes upward with steady, unchecked growth. The 
chill of winter touches its heart and it stands dormant and half 
dead. The drouth of summer robs it of its juices, and calls a halt 
upon its upward and outward moving. And still, when the cen- 
tury has passed the tender shoot has become a mighty tree. The 
kingdom of Gods grows slowly, but it grows. If our toil seems 
fruitless, let us remember that with him for whom we labor a thou- 
sand years are as one day, and that the time which seems so long to 
us is but as a moment in the eternities which are with God. 

Finally, this growth of which we have been speaking depends 
upon life : and that life is God. God is in his world, and is ever- 
more seeking to find a jDlace for himself in the hearts of men. In 
the measure that we make room for him will his kingdom come 
and his will be done in earth as it is in heaven. All too much have 
we conceived of God as over and above his world, but not in it : as 
transcendent, but not immanent. As surely as there is a God, so 
surely is he here among men. The captain of our salvation does 
not direct the battle from some remote height of the universe, but 
leads his soldiers in the fight. Browning, in his "Death in the 



OUR father's kingdom. 373 

Desert/^ puts true words into the moutli of the aged John, when 
he makes him say : 

" To me that stoiy — ay, that Life and Death 
Of which I wrote 'it was' — to me it is : 
Is here and now : I apprehend naught else. 
Is not God i' the world his power first made?" 

He is here, not only the way and truth, but the life as well. He 
is here to use the weak and the foolish. He is here to fill our lives 
with his life, to overrule the wickedness of men to the glory of his 
name. Are our eyes open to his presence and our hearts to his 
entrance? Do we sense his nearness, and before all else seek his 
guidance? Or is it true that too often we go forward trusting to 
our own understanding as if God were only a name. In many ways 
he is striving to make his presence known. He is using this nation 
as his weapon to chastise the cruel, and open the closed doors for 
the entering in of his messengers. He speaks to our souls in the 
silence of the night, and pleads with us in the cry of the oppressed 
and weary hearted. Shall we open our ears and unclose our eyes to 
hear and see the living God ? 

In a great city was erected the statue of a famous man. One day 
a stranger entered the gates of that city, and asked of a passer-by 
where he might find the statue. The citizen answered : "I am the 
man who first suggested the erection of that statue," and he gave 
the stranger directions for finding it. The traveler passed on 
a few blocks and again asked of one whom he met the way to the 
statue. This man proudly answered, "It was my team that hauled 
the statue to its place," and he also gave directions. A third time 
this unknown man asked for the statue which was the city^s pride, 
and the third man replied, "At last you have come to the right per- 
son, for I am the keeper of the statue." The stranger found the 
statue, looked upon it and retraced his steps. As he passed out of 
the city gate two little boys paused in their play to glance at him, 
and one cried to the other : "George, look ! It is the man of the 
statue." And surely enough: he in whose honor they had reared 
the beautiful statue, had walked in their streets and talked with 



374 THE AMEKICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

them face to face, and they knew himj not. The lesson is plain. He 
in whose name we rear stately temples, whose greatness we 
acknowledge and whose goodness we praise, is here among ns and 
speaks to our hearts. Do we know himi as he walks and talks with 
us, or are our eyes holden ? When we see him with nnclouded vision, 
when his life hecomes our life, and his love our love, then will he 
reign with unhindered sway, and all the kingdoms of this world 
become "the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ..^^ 



DOXALD DRUMMOXD :\IACLACEIX, the son of Eev. Duncan and 
Janet ( Drummond ) MacLaurin, was born in the township of St. Vincent, 
Grey county, Ontario. Coming to the United States with the intention of 
entering a business career, he .settled in Binghamton, X. Y. On the first 
Sunday evening after his arrival in Binghamton he attended the Baptist 
church, and while witnessing a baptismal service all the suppressed con- 
victions, engendered by parental instruction, came crowding upon him. He 
went out from the church with a solemn resolution to devote himself to the 
service of Christ. He was baptized by Dr. Lyman Wright, who, up to the 
time of his death, proved a staunch friend and a valuable counselor. Acting 
upon his advice, he entered Colgate Academy. His preparatory course com- 
pleted, he was admitted to Madison (now Colgate) University, where he 
made a fine record as a student. While .studying in the Theological Semi- 
nary he accepted a pastorate in the village of Eaton, X. Y. While there 
stronger churches desired his services, but he could not be persuaded to 
leave until the work was accomplished. This faithfulness to dutj^, this 
subordination of merely personal to higher ends, has been a marked charac- 
teristic in his life. In 1883 he accepted a call to a small church in the city 
of Minneapolis. The church numbered twenty-six members, all poor. 
During his pastorate of seven years one of the finest audience rooms in the 
West was erected, and one of the most substantial and convenient buildings 
in Minneapolis, a city boasting of fine churches. He received into member- 
ship between six and seven hundred persons, four hundred of whom he bap- 
tized himself. During this pastorate he-was six haonths abroad, and pub- 
lished a most excellent series of letters in The Standard, of Chicago, the 
organ of the Baptist denomination in the Xorthwest. In 1890 he was called 
to the pastorate of the old historic Baptist Church of the Epiphany, Xew 
York city, where he remained until 1892, when he moved to Detroit, having 
accepted the pastorate of the Woodward-Avenue Church. About one hun- 
dred people were added to the Xew York church, of whom forty-tsix were 
through baptism. During his nearly nine years' pastorate in Detroit, $301,- 
986 were raised and expended for all purposes, missionaiy and domestic; 
900 persons were added to the membership of the church, 472 of whom 
came in through baptism — an average addition of more than 100 per year, 
and the net gain to the church has been 472. The present membership is 
1,171. Mission interests in the city were vigorously prosecuted. On May 
4, 1901, Dr. MacLaurin received a hearty and unanimous call to the pas- 
torate of the Second Baptist Church of Rochester, X. Y. He began work 
on his new field the following September. Dr. MacLaurin was united in 
marriage June 26, 1877, to Miss Florence Eugenia Page at Triangle, X. Y. 
They have two children, Eugenia and Dorothea Drummond. 
(375) 




0(O)mU i. l^SLAi^li. 0. 



THE GREATEST THING IX THE WOELD. 377 



XXXI 

THE GREATEST THIXCx IX THE WOELD, 

OE 

EEAL CHEISTIAXITY 



By Doxald Deummoxd Maclaeeix, D. D., 
MichiDfan 



■^c^ 



You will find the words of the text in Paul's first epistle to the 
Corinthians, the thirteenth chapter, and the first part of the 
eighth verse : 

'^LOVE XEYEE EAIEETH'"^ 

Of the meaning of the word Jove as here employed, we shall 
speak more at length later on. The word "failetJi' has two tech- 
nical meaning?, between which it is difficult to decide. First, 
it means, technically, "to fall away'' like the petals of a withered 
flower. This donbtless is its meaning as nsed by our Lord's brother 
in that stnrdy and terse epistle of his — ^the Epistle General of 
James. It means, second, technically, 'Ho he hissed off the stage 
like a had actor f That certainly is its meaning in classic Greek, 
and Paul was a classic-al student, and was writing to people who 
were thoroughly familiar with their own tongue and the meaning 
of its commonest words. I believe that this is the meaning which 
we should attach to it in this text. If, then, that be the meaning 
the sentence read thus to the people of Corinth: "Love is never 
hissed off the sta^e like a had actor/' that is to say, love has its 
part to play even on fhe stage of eternity. 

You will see that this is a very suggestive and significant mean- 
ing, and it is the one which will underlie the whole discussion of 
this subject. 



378 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Emphasis put thus upon the fact that love at no point and at no 
time fails, indicates that all else has an element of failure in it. 

Now, it is a pity that any human being should ever fail to obtain 
that measure of happiness, however expressed, if it be worthy, to 
which he aspires. For man was made for accomplishment and suc- 
cess, and to fail — ^to be mastered by inability, or to be mastered by 
misdirected effort, or to be mastered in failing to adjust himself 
properly to the forces that are eternal, is somewhere and sometime 
to be greatly humiliated. And when you examine into man^s powers 
• — powers of body, and powers of mind, and powers of soul — powers 
by which men have already risen from the very lowest levels to the 
very highest reaches and levels of being — you feel in the depths of 
your soul that such a splendid creation was made, in all cases, for 
highest success. But alas ! we know that the contrary is true. 

We know that the vast majority of human lives looked at from 
any point of view you please, are stupendous failures. You remem- 
ber the question was asked in current literature some years ago, "Is 
life worth living?" I remember but a single answer to that ques- 
tion that contained the truth, and that answer was this, "It depends 
entirely on what sort of a life it is you propose to live." If you 
propose to yourself to live only a sensuous life, to live in the lower 
regions of your being, a life limited by the horizon of this world, 
I have no hesitation, even as a Christian minister, from my observa- 
tions of men's lives, to say, that such lives are not worth the living. 
To live merely an animal existence, merely a life related to this 
world, is, for man with his endowments, not worth while. ISTow, 
the failure of men and women to be what they might be, to have 
what they might possess, to become what God intended they should 
become, is sad enough to challenge tears. It is said because of 
personal reasons, because of the personal pain that Is sure to come 
sometime and somewhere to the individual whose career is a failure. 
It was old Thomas Carlyle who said not long before he left this 
world: "The older I grow, and I now stand upon the brink of 
eternity, the more comes back to me the sentences which I learned 
when a child, in the catechism, and the fuller and deeper their 
meaning becomes. 'What is the chief end of man?' 'To glorify 
God and enjoy him forever.' " 



THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. 379 

Oh, let me say to you, my friend, any end whicb you propose to 
yourself as tbe goal of your being, other than that, contains within 
it elements of a failure so colossal that your reason would fly its 
throne to-night could you look upon the awful wreck., You could 
not endure for a single moment the vision of your ruined life could 
you see it in its awful reality. And yet old Thomas Carlyle went 
meandering through the realms of vague philosophy through the 
major portion of his great, strong life, and came back to the only 
philosophy of life worthy of man, which he learned at his auld 
Scotch mither^s knee, and said, at last, that that was the philosophy 
of life. "How often," as John Angel James has said, ^Tias the sigh 
been heaved and the tear been shed over the perishable nature of 
earthly things? The charm of beauty soon fades; the force of 
genius is soon exhausted ; monuments erected in honor of great men 
and great deeds soon crumble and deca}^, a taint of corruption 
seems to infect everything that is earthly." Permanence alone is 
the climax of excellency. JSTow, if this principle be true^ — and it 
is contained in the text — we are forced to confess that we do not 
find this high quality in an}^ of the things which we see, and the 
things which we feel, and the things which charm us most now. Our 
author, the Apostle Paul, says that "love never faileth." Love, 
therefore, has the instinct of immortality. "Love is never hissed off 
the stage like a bad actor — that is to say, love has its part to play 
even on the stage of eternity." Now, it is not meant that when 
one has once possessed this love, he shall never lose it. That is not 
the question under discussion by the apostle, nor will it be the ques- 
tion under discussion here. That is not at all in view. It is a 
question of the relative duration of great gifts and developments. It 
is as if the apostle had said : "Why, brethren, there are many things 
in this world highly, and rightly so, prized by men. But they are 
transient. They are evanescent. They belong to an order that is to 
pass away. Love never faileth. Love is not evanescent. Love 
does not belong to the transient. Love belongs to an order that is 
eternal. Love never faileth. That is to say, love has its part to 
play not only on this stage but on the stage of eternity." 



380 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

THE MEANING OF LOVE 

Well, now, what is meant b}^ this love ? It is not easily defined. 
It is more easily described, and that is precisely what the apostle 
has done in this great psalm of love, which onr honored friend, Dr. 
Henry Drummond, now looking with unveiled face into the face of 
him he loved, has called "The Greatest Thing in the World.^^ There 
are some fifteen characteristics of love, bnt nowhere in it do you 
find a definition of love. Nor do yon find a definition of love in the 
Bible. That which comes the nearest to a definition is the sum- 
mary of the Divine Law as contained in the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament and the New : 

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and withi all thy strength, and 
thy neighbor as thyself." 

It is, therefore, the union of the faculties of the human soul in 
a given direction. It is that state of the whole soul in which it 
moves towards all beings, high and low, rich and poor, well- 
favored and ill-favored, divine and human, with good will, with 
sympathy, with affection. It is the having for others the same desire 
for well-being, and comfort, and peace and right, and prosperity, 
which you have for yourself. It is more or less perfectly illustrated 
in every true, human love, and especially in mother-love. It is the 
mainspring in the entire activities of God. If you can just now, 
for a moment, condense yourself into your imagination, and thus 
gather all God's activities into one — all God^s vast ci-eational activi- 
ties, by which he makes stars, and constellations, and milky- ways, and 
for aught we know, peoples them with multitudes and wondrous life, 
his paternal activities, by which he cares for all things he has made, 
and not only the infinite stars, but the tiniest creature that breathes, 
and the most insignificant and minute characteristics of the men and 
women of our earth, for our Saviour has said, "Not a bird falls to 
the' earth without your father's knowledge," and "All the hairs of 
your head are numbered^'' — I say, just simply compress into one all 
God's activities of every sort, and you will find that the main- 
spring of all he does is love, and the mainspring of the watch that 
some one is winding now is the motor power of all its machinery. 



THE GREATEST THING IN THE WOELD. 381 

for God himself is love. And in so far as we are ruled by love are 
we like G-od, and only in so far as we are thus ruled by love are we 
like G-od. 

REAL CHRISTIANITY IS LOVE 

Here, then^ friends^, we must have real Christianity^ Yon are, and 
I am, anxious to know what real Christianity is. I am. I am sure 
that you are. ISTow, what is real Christianity? Well, I will tell 
you in a few words what I think it is not. I think it is not a 
subscription to any humanly-made creed, however excellently it may 
have been articulated ; it is not a confession of faith, however splen- 
didly the faith articles have been formulated ; it is not the accept- 
ance of any theological system, no matter how biblical and sym- 
metrically it has been constructed. It is nothing of the sort. It 
is not even a belief in propositions, though, these propositions may 
have been deduced out of Scripture; yea, more, stated in the very 
terms of Scripture. Eeal Christianity is something that has 
gotten beyond the intellect. Eeal Christianity is something that 
has gotten into the soul. Aye, that has stormed the very central 
citadel of a man^s life, and that holds it against all comers forever.. 
Eeal Christianity is love; love for God, and love for man. Now, 
this love for God must be distinguished from several things. I think 
I shall not have time to speak of but one thing from which we 
must distinguish it. 

For instance, we must distinguish this love of God from love of 
doctrines about God. Why do you know, there have been and still 
are, I am sotyj to say, plenty of people in the world who were full 
of most earnest love for doctrines about God, and so ardent were 
tliey to have these doctrines about God prevail that they have actually 
felt it incumbent upon them to punish other people who would not 
subscribe to their form of expression or to their notion of doctrines 
about God. And, so, they have actually whipped some of us (not 
myself, but some of my fathers), they have actually put some in 
prison. They have banished them. They have tortured them. And 
there are men who proclaim from housetops and ^^consecrated" 
buildings their love for doctrines about God, who will yet put the 
thumb screw of the Inquisition upon all they regard as heretics. 



382 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

It is not Christianity.. Love of doctrines about God, no matter what 
they are, is not loving God, any more than loving my clothing on 
the part of my children is loving me, nor loving the frocks and 
frills of their mother is loving the mother. Neither of ns would 
wish that our children should love our personal adornment or any- 
thing else than ourselves. God feels the same way. He is not 
satisfied that we should love doctrines about him, or expressions 
theological concerning him. He wants you to love him, to love him 
in a spontaneous, in a natural way, and nothing will answer, nothing 
else will fulfill the requirement of this great summary of the Divine 
Law. 

Now I have known little children who could not define any theo- 
logical proposition, whom I have regarded as having more love for 
God than many a theologian whose heart seems to have frozen, whose 
intellect is strong and clear, and who has even analyzed God and 
put his attributes away nicely labeled in his mental cabinet, and 
then, on occasion, has reconstructed him, has analyzed and synthe- 
sized him, just as an anatomist might play with a human body. 
That is not it at all. It is not necessary that you should know so 
very much. You and I can enjoy the sunlight, though we are unable 
with the spectroscope to analyze the sun. It takes an astronomer 
to do that. So a child properly trained can love God, and I am sure 
that you all can. 

But I know that there is a difficulty. I know men and women 
here who would say: "Mr. Preacher, you tell us to love God. I 
would like to love him, but how can I? He is so vague in my 
thought. He is so far away I do not see him. I do not feel him 
to know that I feel him. I do not hear him to know that I am 
hearing him. He is too immense, too vast, too shadowy. I cannot, 
with my heart, love him.^' Well, I am glad to hear you say so., 
I would rather you would be honest like that and confess a truth, 
that all of us would confess if we were honest. It is Impossible for 
us to love anything like that. Love cannot be organized and sent 
out on any mission whither you please. Love must be elicited. 
Love must see a beautiful object that awakens it, that stirs it into 
life, and no one understood that fact more perfectly than God our 
Father. He knew that we could not in a natural way love him 



THE GEEATEST THING IX THE WORLD. 383 

■Qnless we saw him. And one reason for the incarnation of Jesus 
Christ was that man might see God in him. Xow^ I am sure 
that you will excuse me if I tell you how I am in the habit of seek- 
ing personally to fulfill this divine injunction, and so have real 
Christianity for myself. 

HOW THE PEEACHEE EXLISTS LOVE 

I am accustomed to close my eyes (and I do not know but that 
we can oftentimes, after all. see far more with our outward eyes 
closed that when they are open), and so I am accustomed to shut 
my eyes and look away across lands and seas into yon little country, 
sacred because of the revelations therein made to the sons of men. 
And just new I am looking upon that dimple-cheeked baby lying 
in the arms of his fair young mother in the cave at Bethlehem. 
And now I am with them in their flight to Eg;^,-pt. I return with 
them after Herod is dead, and accompany the holy family up into 
Xazareth of Galilee. I am with the boy morning, afternoon, and 
night. I climb the hills that surround the beautiful little city 
with him, and with him study the wondrous stars that hang like 
lamps from the arched azure above us. I am with him in the car- 
penter shop and in the home. I am watching the development of 
his character. I am with him that day when he comes to his 
mother and says, •'Mother, the time has come for me to enter upon 
my life mission,"^ and, with the tears trembling in his eyes and his 
face qidvering with emotion, he says : ^'Dear mother, good-by.'"' 

And when he goes I follow him down to the banks of the Jor- 
dan. I am a witness of the intercourse between him and the rugged 
preacher. I see him baptized. I see him as he goes into the wil- 
derness and is there tempted. I behold him in that awful per- 
sonal conflict with the arch-foe of man. I see him as he seems 
to be battling, not for self, but for others — ^battles that would 
make any man dizzy; but he takes them all, and, emaciated with 
hunger though he is, he seems to win, and for others. I return 
with him as he goes in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. I go 
about with him from village to village, from city to city. I hear 
the wondrous words that fall like music from his lips; I see him 



384 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

toucli the eyes of the blind, and the ears of the deaf and the bier 
of the dead. I see him speaking words of comfort to the broken- 
hearted and the discouraged and the afficted. I am with him on 
his journey to the city of the great king, and climb the steeps from 
Jericho to Jerusalem. I watch his kindness. I see how serious 
and sober he is now. I journey with him back and forth from 
Jerusalem to Bethany that week, the last of his life. I am with 
him in the garden; I hear his wondrous prayers., I see the com- 
ing of the soldiers ; I am at the surrender. I am with Mm, but far 
away, as, alas ! are the other disciples as they take him from court 
to court. I watch him., Ah, the majesty of the man and the 
control of his mind over his powers, his emotions, his feelings as 
he submits to insult and injury unspeakable. Oh, thou mian of 
Galilee, thou art the fairest among ten thousand ! There is none 
so lovely, though thy face is so marred now ! 

I watch him as he carries the cross. I see him as he staggers be- 
neath it. I am' witness of the awful agonies of the crucifixion. 
I see his lips open now after a long and wondrous silence. Is he 
to hurl some thunderbolt at these his enemies? Ro! Listen, ye 
angels, listen, ye men ! "Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do.'^ 0, thou Galilean, whoever thou art, thou hast my 
heart ! I would that I could die for thee. I love thee as I love no 
other in all the world. 

I follow afar as they carry his limp body and lay it away in Jo- 
seph's new rock-hewn tomb. I am now in the deepest grief. They 
have killed my love. They have buried my love and with the 
other disciples I am in agony uncontrollable. Behold ! the morrow 
breaks ! And they come ! "I have seen him," she says. I see him 
again, too ; he is transfigured now — so radiant, so beautiful, so won- 
dl*ous. And after forty days I am with the disciples on the hill, 
and see him, in spite of gravity, rise, and he is lost to vision in the 
encircling clouds. And I return. I remember that in his conver- 
sation, that marvelous table talk of his in the upper room, he said : 
"He that hath seen me hath seen my Father also. I and my 
Father are one.'' And in loving him I thus see I am actually 



THE GREATEST THIXG IX THE WORLD. 385 

loving God, and thus fulfilling the first term in the condition of 
being a true Christian. 

LOVE MAN ALSO 

But the love for man must be distinguished also from several 
things, and I shall have time, as before, to touch but one thing. 
It must be distinguished, for instance, from the lore of abstract 
humanity. Ah! there is a deal of that in the world now. You 
will hear it from platform, and the sanctums of our great daily 
papers are full of it, and the sanctums of the magazines are full 
of it, religious and secular alike. Love of humanity! It was 
that that took us to Cuba. And it is that that is inspiring us with 
our warfare in the Philippine Islands. 

Love of humanity! Yes, there are multitudes of us who are 
connected with some institution of charity who think that therein 
we are discharging our obligation to humanity. That doesn't do 
it. The love of our neighbor that fulfills the requirement of G-od's 
word is a love for a concrete case. A man is known to us to be 
in distress. A man who has fallen among thieves, and is left 
robbed and wounded. That is the man we are to bestow our love 
upon, if we would fulfill the conditions of real Christianity. You 
know there is a tiger in every one of U5, and oftentimes the tiger 
gets away from his leash and springs upon some one and leaves him 
lacerated. By the way, my brother, my sister, have a care that 
that tiger has not within a month injured some neighbor of yours. 
And the priest comes down, and there is a priest in every one of us, 
even the best of us. And the priest passes by on the other side. 
And a Levite comes, and there is a Levite in every one of us, mark 
you. And he comes, too, and passes on. But love comes right 
there and ministers to the poor broken thing that is by the wayside. 

Sometimes a little story will do more to establish a point than 
a lengthy argument. In the city of Chicago some years ago there 
was a poor, poor girl. One day a missionary met her, and the 
dancLQg girl said : "I wish you could help me to a better life. I 
have no father, no mother, no friend in this sreat citv. I know 
not where to go or what to do. Will you help me?'' And the 



386 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

missionary said: "Yes, that is my business. That is what I am 
out for, to help unfortunates like you.'' She said : "Come with me/' 
and took her with her., Do you think she took her to some of those 
splendid mansions along the boulevard? They can build institu- 
tions, they can build colleges, but to take a girl like that into their 
homes and minister to her is just a little too much of a strain on 
the love of some of the rich. So she took her to a humble woman 
who earned her living by taking in washing. She told the girl's 
story, and said: "Will you take care of her until I can get some- 
thing else for her?" And the woman replied: "Yes, I will. I 
will do the best I can for her." And so she took her in; and the 
poor girl in the reaction was thrown upon a bed of sickness, and 
one day while this humble washing-woman Christian was in her 
motherly way ministering to the poor degraded thing the tears 
rolled from the girl's eyes, and, looking up into the face of the kind 
friend, she said: "I do not know God; I do not know where God 
lives; I do not know how to talk to him, and I do not think he 
would listen to me if I did try to talk to him. But, oh, ma'am, 
if God is anything like you, I would like to see him; I would like 
to know him ; I could love him." 

That is it ! That is it ! There is so much of love in you that 
the unfortunate, the distressed, the robbed of virtue and of man- 
hood and of womanhood, of opportunity in life, will see God in you, 
and will be led to wish to know him who alone can save ! That is it ! 

WE MUST HAVE IT 

Now this love, if we want to have the real thing, is what we must 
have. And what a blessed thing it is, friends, that we can have it ! 
Why, if any other condition were nominated in the bond, the very 
terms of the condition would shut out a vast majority of us. Let 
us see. Suppose, in the first place, it read thus: "And if I have 
love" (that soft sentiment, good enough for women and children), 
"but have no eloquence," I am of no use; I cannot get into the 
kingdom of God. And do you know the eloquent people are very 
few in this world? What would the poor stammerers among us 
do? The most of us are stanmiierers. And if that were the con- 



THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. 387 

dition, the very condition itself would exclude us from entrance into 
the kingdom of God, and from attaining a position of usefulness 
and power in it. Wouldn't it ? But it does not read that way. It 
reads thus: "If I have all eloquence of earth and heaven, if I 
speak with the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I 
am as sounding brass and the clanging cymbal." 

Suppose it were knowledge. That I should know all mysteries 
and all knowledge. According to Plato, elevation to the supreme was 
effected by knowledge. Well, I would like you to tell me how much 
knowledge we should possess in order that we should get into the 
kingdom of God, and especially into the church. There was a time 
when deacons (bless the Lord! they are all in heaven) examined 
the poor trembling soul who sought admission into the Christian 
church. They would pose as wise men and propound great theo- 
logical questions that they themselves did not understand to the 
would-be candidate for membership in the church, and if the poor 
man couldn't answer them all seriatim he was bidden to bide his 
time until he learned some more. Yes, if a man had the fixing of 
the knowledge, I doubt if I could have gotten in when I did. I 
really fear tha,t if they had subjectedTme to an examination of the 
old severe sort I would have been turned out or kept out. But it 
isn't that. It is love, and I knew that I loved, and they seemed 
to feel, when I was converted', that I loved. And so they welcomed 
me into the church, and I have been learning ever since, and ex- 
pect to to the end, to the end of the eternities, and that means 
forever and ever. 

But I have gone far enough to demonstrate that if any other con- 
dition that you or God Almighty, in his wisdom, could name as 
the condition of our becoming first-class Christians, the very terms 
would shut the majority ot us out. But it isn't that. It is love, 
and everybody can love. Every man, woman, and child who has 
a heart can love. 

. I have a little story that I love to tell in this connection about 
my little girl, my elder little girl, who is now twelve years old. A 
month before she was four years old I was in Chicago supplying 
the pulpit of the First Baptist Church during two Sundays of 



388 THE AMEKIOAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

my summer vacation. It has been my habit to write to her, even 
before she could read the letters, when I wrote to her mother, and 
sometimes would write an independent letter, and she has kept 
them. But this time I sent a letter to her in the letter to my wife. 
And when her mother was writing to me she said : "Eugenia, don^t 
you want to send some word to papa? I believe he is lonesome 
away out in the great city of Chicago ; don^t you want to send some 
message to him ?" She had a habit then that we thought was cute 
— of putting her little fingers up to her head and saying: "Let 
me think.'' She was leaning against the bed as her mother was 
at the desk in the chamber writing, and after she had played that 
little farce long enough, she said to her mother : "Oh, just you tell 
him how I love him." 

I do not care what you think of me, but as I read that letter in 
the lobby of the hotel, in spite of myself, the tears rushed to my 
eyes and rolled down my cheeks; and I crushed the letter into my 
pocket, and walked up and down Michigan avenue for an hour. 
Listen ! It is our purpose to give to that child, in the way of 
culture, the best the world affords, if God spares her life. But 
no matter what she may become, she will never be able to send to me, 
her father, a message of such beauty as that one she sent before 
she was four years old. "Oh, just you tell him how I love him..'' 
And do you know, as I walked up and down the avenue that day 
I prayed that God would help the great congregation that would 
meet in the First Church (and they crowded the house so that the 
wall chairs were filled as well) I prayed that God would enable me 
to tell those people to say to Jesus, using him' as a medium as the 
child used her mother as a medium of communication to her father, 
to say to Jesus : "Oh, Jesus, Master, just you tell the Father how 
we love him." 

If I have a single prayer in my heart, and I have it at this hour, 
it is that every man and every woman in this audience would say, 
before he sleeps : "Oh, Jesus, just you tell the Father how I love 
him." Or, if you are not conscious yet of that love, be true and 
say : "Tell him how I want to love him." And I will assure you 
that no message can come from the brighest seraph in all God's im- 



THE GREATEST THING IN" THE WORLD. 389 

mense universe of equal beauty, or that will be so welcome as such, 
a message from the men and women in this congregation. You 
can love, and you can, therefore, be real Christians. 

But some one will say : This is all very well, relating to the other 
world, but what will it do for this present life ? We have a hard 
struggle d'own here, and now we want something in days of busi- 
ness cares and stresses that will be of practical helpfulness in our 
present life. Well, I have been giving it to you. Listen, there is 
not a thing in the universe of Almighty G-od so helpful as love in 
every situation, in every life. What will it do for him who pos- 
sesses Christian love ? 

1. It will give us courage to dare. What is so daring as a man 
of love? and what do we need more- to-day than men of courage, 
men who have the courage of their convictions? Can you tell me 
anything that will give you courage like love ? 

Do you see that fire ; do you see the flames belch out of the win- 
dows ; do you see those men put up the ladder ^mid the flames and 
smoke ; do you see that man climbing the ladder ? His child is in 
the burning building, and he will brave the fiercest flame. Love 
gives him the courage. 

Yiou see those boys marching at the roll of drum and fife, march- 
ing against blazing musketry and cannon. They are inspired by 
the love of country, patriotismi. We are engaged in a warfare. 
Battles are to be fought daily. Victories are to be won for our- 
selves and for the Lord Christ. Love is at once the inspiration 
and the qualification for the warfare. Love will give us courage 
to dare. 

2. It will give us strength to hear. It is the strongest sustain- 
ing power in the universe., The myriad-minded Shakespeare makes 
one of his characters say : 

" For who would bear the whips and scorns of time. 
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes?" 

I will tell you. Brother Shakespeare, who will bear it — ^the man 



390 THE AMEEICAIT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

or the woman whose heart is full of Christian love. Do 5^011 know 
anything that will inspire people to hear as love? Look at that 
mother. She has not had her clothes off for two weeks, except to 
change them. She has not had uninterruptedly three hours of 
sleep. What is the matter? Why, there in that cot is that pale- 
faced child so sick ! And the mother, without complaint, watches 
it night and day. To my mind it is one of the wonders of life how 
a mother can hear such fatigue as that. 

If I lose one night^s sleep, I am not myself. If I were to lose 
two night's sleep in succession, I am afraid that I would be cross. 
But that mother is not — that mother hears. Nothing will give 
you strength to hear like love. And why is it so? Because love 
has the instinct of immortality, and all who possess it are upheld 
and mastered by that mighty impulse. 

The Christ looking forward into the ages ahead from the summit 
of his cross saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. Galileo, 
standing in the midst of spiteful priests, felt that beneath the stone 
pavement of his prison chamber the earth did miove, and that his 
mighty assertion would one day stand, vindicated in human knowl- 
edge. Bunyan knew that in the heavenly country of which he 
dTeamed so gloriously he would have something better than an 
English prison in which to live — even a celestial mansion. 

But these no more needed to be sustained by this mighty im- 
pulse than we do who are living still. Society is still inharmo- 
nious. Failures are still occurring, and the groans of the mangled 
are still heard on all sides. 

3. It ivill give us tenderness to care. Need I amplify that 
thought at this hour? You know that nothing is so tender in its 
ministry as love. You know that nothing guards the reputation 
and character and feelings of another as love. Many the one has 
sighed: "Oh, for the touch of a vanquished hand." Who touched 
our feverish brow like mother? It wiU give us tenderness to care. 

Beloved, I have done. Do you really want real Christianity?" 
If I understand it, I have set it before you in this discourse. Then 
if you do, get your whole heart full of love. Pray the spirit of 
love to come and brood over you; beget within your heart love. 



THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. 391 

Ask Mm to slie<3J abroad] in that heart of yours the Saviour's love, 
and as the poet has it : ''That shall kindle ours/^ 
Eemember how beautifully Spencer has sung of it : 

" Love is life's end ; an end, but never ending ; 
All joys, all sweets, all happiness, awarding; 
Love is life's wealth (ne'er spent, but ever spending) 
More rich by giving, taking by discarding; 
Love's life's reward, rewarded in rewarding; 
Then from thy wretched heart fond care remove; 
Ah ! shouldst thou live but once love's sweet to prove, 
Thou wouldst not love to live, unless thou live to love." 



392 THE AMEKICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXXII 
A TEUMPET CALL 



By Maevin Geow Hodge, D. D., 
Wiscansin 

"But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the 
power of God."— II. Tim. 1 : 8. 

THEEE are many who claim to be partakers of the benefits of the 
gospel. They have indulged a hope, made a profession of 
faith, and joined the church. They account it as a settled fact 
that their sins are forgiven, that they are accepted of God, and that 
they belong of right among his people. Moreover, they hope that 
in the world to come they shall be sharers in the great inheritance 
which is reserved for the children of God. 

But those who cherish this hope should bear in mind that the 
gospel has its afflictions as well as its benefits. There are burdens 
to be borne as well as comforts to be enjoyed. The kingdom of 
heaven has its warfare as well as its rewards. 

When Paul wrote this letter he was a prisoner. He laiew how 
to wear a chain as well as how to sing a Psalm. He bore in his 
body the marks of the Lord Jesus while in his soul he rejoiced in 
hope of the glory of God. And now he counsels Timothy to be not 
ashamed of the testimony of the Lord,, nor of the Lord^s prisoner 
who was writing him, but to take cheerfully his full share in gos- 
pel trials as well as in gospel triumphs. His aim^ was to nerve the 
soul of his younger brother to that self-denial, cross-bearing, for- 
titude, endurance, which constitute so large a part of the true Chris- 
tian life on earth. 

As though he had said, conceive not of this new life as a sunny 
lawn upon which to recline and be at ease, but rather as a scene of 
toil and burden-bearing and earnest work, calling for resolute- 



:M_\rvVIN GROW HODGE was born in Hardwick, Vt., February 20, 1822. 
He was converted and united with the Baptist church at the age of seven- 
teen. Shortly after his conversion he felt strongly the conviction that his 
life shoukl be devoted to the work of the Christian ministry. In prepara- 
tion for his chosen work he pursued academic studies at Derby, Vt., imder 
the instruction of Heman Lincoln and Alvah Hovey, both of whom, in later 
years, became widely known in connection with their work at Newton Theo- 
logical Seminary. In June, 1843, he Avas ordained at East Charleston, Vt. 
He had pastorates at Colchester and Hinesburg, Vt.,. and at Stillwater, New- 
York, and in October, 1854, began a successful pastorate of six and a half 
years with the Hanson Place Church, Brooklyn, New York. From June, 
1861, to the spring of 1863 he served the church in Beaver Dam, Wis. For 
two years Dr. Hodge served as District Secretary of the American Baptist 
Home Mission Society for New England. He returned to W^isconsin in 1865, 
and settled with the church at Janesville, remaining there for six years. 
After a short pastorate in New York city, six years of service at Kalama- 
zoo, Mich., and two and a half years Avith the First Baptist Church of Mil- 
waukee, he returned to Janesville, and entered upon his second pastorate 
with that church, which continued over sixteen years, closing June 1, 1897. 
Though far beyond the age when most men retire from acti^-e public life, 
at the earnest request of the church at Beaver Dam he Avas induced to min- 
ister to that church a second time. This he continued to do for nearly 
three years, much to the pleasure and profit of all connected Avith the 
church. The character of the churches AA^hich Dr. Hodge has serA^ed, his 
long pastorates, and his frequent recalls to the same field, attest the poAver 
and efifectiA'^eness of his preaching and pastoral Avork. Probably no minister 
in our denomination Avas better knoAvn or more universally beloA^ed by the 
Baptists of Wisconsin than Dr. Hodge. The intellectual ability of Dr. Hodge 
has been recognized by seA^eral leading colleges. In 1849 he received the 
honorary degree of A. M. from the University of Vermont; also the same 
degree from the UniA^ersity of Rochester in 1854. In 1867 the UniA'ersity 
of Chicago conferred upon him the Avell-deserved degree of D. D. Not alone 
for his remarkably successful pastorates and unusually brilliant mental 
gifts Avas Dr. Hodge highly esteemed, but even much more for his rare quali- 
ties of heart and soul that haA'-e given the inspiration and aspiration to 
many a life. On the 26th of August, 1901, Dr. Hodge entered info his 
eternal rest. "He being dead, yet speaketh." 
(394) 



A TRUMPET CALL. 395 

ness, energy, determination, seasoned with long-suffering and pa- 
tient endurance. 

The true Christian spirit does not shun these sterner things. It 
is not afraid of toil; it can brave dangers, it can endure obloquy. 
It recognizes the afflictions of the gospel as a part of its heritage. 
It sa}-s : "Xone of these things move me." It welcomes the yoke 
of Christ and expects to bear his burden. He who says : "I must 
be served at all events" and is not careful to be himself a servant, 
may well doubt his good estate in the sight of God. The speoific 
token of the old man is selfishness, of the new man, unselfishness. 
Unregenerate men ask : "WTio will show us any good ?" Regenerate 
men ask: "Lord, what wilt thou have us to do?" The former 
study how to avoid hardsliips, the latter how to bear them for the 
sake of Christ and his cause. He is not worthy to be called a 
Christian whose main pra3'er is: "I pray thee have me excused." 
The man who is expert at framing excuses gives but slender evi- 
dence of being a Christian. For what is it to be a Christian? Is 
it not to be a follower of Christ? And what was Christ's method 
when burdens were to be borne ? Did he pray to be excused ? Did 
he not rather say : "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how 
am I straitened until it be accomplished?" Had Christ treated 
the afflictions of the gospel as many do who claim to be his follow- 
ers, there had been no gospel to publish, for the gospel is the good 
news of accomplished redemption; the gospel is the story of that 
amazing love which was told out on the cross at Calvary; the gos- 
pel is the glad tidings of the pa}Tnent of our debt by the sufferings 
of our Eedeemer; the gospel is the message of G-od's grace written 
by the pierced hand of the Son of God in lines of anguish and in 
characters of blood. Affliction's direst wave rolled in full tide 
over the Holy One when he gave us life by his own death. When- 
ever, then, the temptation assails us to shirk a burden, to evade a 
cross, to decline a service, to spare ourselves a sacrifice, we do well 
to pause and first look unto Jesus. What burden did he shirk? 
What cross did he shun? What ser\'ice to God or to a suffering 
world did he decline ? What sacrifice did he spare himself ? 

I see him, even when weary and worn, still going about doing 
good, I see him making a long journey to reach the smitten home 



396 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

in Bethany because death is there, and he only can restore to life. 
I hear him at the last Passover speaking words of comfort to his 
weeping disciples after the deep shadow of the coming cross has 
fallen full across his path. I follow him to the garden, and see him 
among the olive trees prostrate upon the earth, as he being in an 
agony prays more earnestly. I see him arrested, even as a male- 
factor might be arrested, upon the accursed betrayal. I see him 
brought to trial before the bitterly prejudiced Jewish priest and 
before the heartless Eoman governor. I see him scourged, cruci- 
fied, mocked, and derided. I stand and gaze as after a last and 
piercing cry he gives up the ghost in an awful death. And then 
I turn my eyes upon men who hope that death has brought them 
life, and I see them searching for the easy paths and standing apart 
from even slight sacrifices. I hear such people call this Christ 
their Saviour and talk about being borne, by and by, by his shin- 
ing angels to that heaven of joy which he has gone to prepare. 
But when I do not see them wearing bis yoke and bearing his bur- 
den ; when I do not see them willing to fill up that which is behind 
of his sufferings for his body's sake, which is the church, then I 
fear and tremble lest their hope prove as the spider's web at the 
giving up of the ghost. 

Then from the Master I turn to such of his servants as in the 
early ages stood forth as exponents of the true spirit of his religion. 
I see them standing up as bold witnesses at great cost — cost of ease, 
of popular favor, of estates, of liberty, even of life itself. I see 
them rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer shamie for the 
name of Jesus. I hear them say that they endure all things for 
the elect's sake, that they may obtain the salvation which is in 
Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. I see them scourged, beaten with 
rods, and bound fast in the stocks. I see them stoned upon the 
field until they are left for dead. I hear them say that they are 
willing to be counted fools for Christ's sake. And I notice that no 
persecutions short of death are able to silence the voices of their tes- 
timony. Suffer they can, but they cannot withhold from the ears 
of m^n the things which they have seen and heard. Brave, noble 
men and womien, they fixed for us and for all the ages the true id^ 
of discipleship and left fee strong picture before the ages in un- 



A TRUMPET CALL. 397 

fading colors. They so identified themselves with the gospel that 
its afflictions were their afflictions, its burdens their burdens, its re- 
proach their reproach. 

They did not care to fare better than did that holy gospel which 
had brought them all their hopes. They deemed it enough for the 
servant that he be as his Master ; enough for the disciple that he be 
as his Lord. 

Xor was it alone the first tilled fields of gospel grace that yielded 
these plants of renown. All the way down through the dark ages 
bright lights have gleamed, and even these latest centuries have 
been enriched by most stimulating examples. John Bunyan will 
lie for twelve long years in Bedford jail rather than deny the faith. 
Richard Baxter will stand in court and be reviled by the brutal 
Jeffries, but he will not surrender the truth of the gospel. Eoger 
Williams will be banished from the realm of Christian civiliza- 
tion, and sent into the howling wilderness, but he will not deliver 
up the vital doctrine of soul-liberty. Oncken will lie in a German 
prison, but he will not preach a mutilated gospel. 

Fifty-six miles from busy London lies the quiet village of Card- 
ington. In a beautiful residence there, once lived John Howard, 
surrounded by the various fascinations of a rural life, and devoting 
his time to reading, gardening, and the dear enjoyments of a peace- 
ful home. But when his reading and his personal observations and 
inquiries revealed to him the unsuspected miseries of prison life, 
his spirit became stirred within him. Upon learning the details 
of those dens of lingering death, the prisons of Europe, he could no 
longer enjoy his home of ease. He found that some of the prisoners 
were lying on the damp ground, some on straw matted and baked 
with filth, some in comers whose loathes omeness may not be men- 
tioned, all raging with the pangs of thirst and hunger. The dank, 
pestilential air, the dampn^s of the dungeon walls and sometimes 
the stench of the decaying dead, placed their wretchedness past 
description. "Men accused of murder and men charged only with 
the simplest misdemeanor, highway robbers and debtors to a few 
shillings, the diseased, the maniac, and the broken-hearted were 
mixed and mingled together." Howard saw, pitied, resolved and 
acted. What he saw, he told; what he learned, he printed, and so 



398 THE AMERICAIT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

began te great reform in prison discipline. He encountered' disease 
in its most deadly forms and pushed on his work of relief hard by 
the months of yawning graves. For the sake of Christ and human- 
ity, he explored the prisons and hospitals of the British Isles and 
of the Continent, carrying help and hope to the perishing inmates. 
JSTothing daunted he ventured on, until in a Turkish village on the 
Black Sea, he fell, a glorious martyr, leaving to the world the 
legacy of a great example. 

In the month of October, 1826, a Christian heroine lay on her 
couch of suffering in the city of Amherst in British Burmah. Her 
burning brow, as she rolled from side to side in her anguish, told 
of the raging fever that was consuming her. Dark-browed daugh- 
ters of Burmah were about her, but no mother or sister or other 
friend to whisper in her native tongue words of tenderness and love. 
Her devoted husband had been called to a distant village on mis- 
sionary service, and was now far away. As the death hour drew 
near, she faintly sighed : "The teacher is long in coming ; the new 
missionaries are long in coming, I mnst die alone, and leave my 
little one. Tell the teacher the disease was most violent; tell him 
I could not write; tell him how I suffered and died; tell him all 
you see." 

" She made a sign 

To bring her babe; 'twas brought and by her placed. 

She looked upon its face * * * and laid 

Her hand upon its little breast and sought 

For it, with look that seemed to penetrate 

The heavens. Unutterable blessings — such 

As God to dying parents only granted, 

For infants left behind them in the world. 

' God keep my child,' we heard her say, and heard 

No more: the Angel of the Covenant 

Wa;s come and faithful to his promise, stood 

Prepared to walk with her thro' death's dark vale." 

So passed from earth the purified spirit of Ann Hasseltine Jnd- 
son. She had partaken deeply of the afflictions of the gospel accord- 
ing to the power of God. And she is but one of the many witnesses 
to the glory of self-denial for the cause of Christ. The pages of 
Christian history are enriched by the record of a whole galaxy of 



A TRUMPET CALL. 399 

such shining lights. And every one of them should become to ns 
an inspiration to nobleness. May the mention of them to-day 
kindle our ardor and make ns zealous for the Lord of hosts and for 
the growth of Ms kingdom. 

But the question may here arise^ why must believers in the 
gospel be made partakers of its afflictions ? Why may they not sail 
over smooth seas to the haven of bliss and be spared the violence of 
contrary winds? To this we answer: What if arrival in port be 
not the main thing which their Lord intends for them ? What if 
he makes more account of what they are to become, than of where 
they are to land ? What if character formed is more in his account 
than habitation gained? Does he not know that heaven is to a 
man more or less according to the discipline through which it is 
reached ? There is an entrance and there is an abundant entrance. 
There is a joy and there is a fullness of joy, and so an apostle prays, 
"The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by 
Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you per- 
fect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Few subjects are treated with 
greater fullness in the Scriptures of truth than the mission of suf- 
fering in the formation of Christian character. The furnace is 
appointed for purposes of refinement. It is whom the Lord loveth 
that he chasteneth. He is preparing vessels unto honor and he 
would have them vessels of great purity. A religion which is all 
singing and no weeping is not likely to become deep and strong. 
A plant to be healthy and enduring must strike its roots down into 
the darkness, as well as open its blossoms in the light. The winds 
and ice of vdnter as well as the beams of summer radiance con- 
tribute to the strength of the forest oak. The petted child which is 
tenderly screened from all the ways of ruggedness becomes effemi- 
nate. God loves his children too well to mar their characters by such 
indulgence. And what we now insist on is that in this matter of 
character building, we should be workers together with God. Only 
by burden bearing does life become heroic. If we would make our 
lives sublime we must not nestle in quiet places. "Breast the wave. 
Christian, when it is strongest," if you would develop power. 

The man who shook Judea as it had not been shaken through 
ten centuries was not attired in soft raiment, nor was he pam- 



400 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

p^red in a king's palace, but he had his raiment of cameFs hair, and 
his meat was locusts and wild honey, and his feet were hardened 
by the stones of the wilderness. 

I greatly fear that the age in which we live is not produc- 
ing many men of might. We are exempt from persecution, 
we are enriched by national prosperity, we dwell in a land 
of plenty; in our religious associations we enjoy the fruitage 
of our hard-working predecessors and the danger is very great 
that we shall love our ease, and float in a current that we never 
helped to establish, and so dwindle to the merest weaklings in 
Zion. I hardly know what worse thing could happen to ourselves, 
not to insist now on the loss which religion would thereby suffer, 
than that we should become dwarfed through lack of high and great 
endeavor. It need not stint our manhood that our lot is cast in an 
era of prosperity, but the danger that it will is very great., When 
I see young persons indulge a hope, join the church and forthwith 
seek out its easy chairs and lounges, I see an augury of evil, both 
for themselves and for the church. But when I see young members 
taking up vigorous service, seeking diligently to become useful, not 
afraid or unwilling to lay hold upon the hardest work, then I see an 
augury of great good. Let me be a little more specific at this point. 
I would make the path of Christian activity so plain that none can 
fail to see it. Perhaps some do little because they do not know 
exactly what should be done. I would point them to public religious 
worship to be sustained and ask if they are regular in attendance 
there; to the weekly prayer-meeting and ask do they help to sustain 
it both by their presence and by their participation in its services, 
to the abodes of human want and suffering and ask if they are ever 
ministering angels there; to the Bible school where both children 
and adults are gathered to study the oracles of Grod, and ask if they 
are serving their generation there ; to the urgent work of temperance 
reform and ask if their influence is felt there ; to the field whitened 
unto the harvest all about them, and ask if by personal conversa- 
tions, counsels, and prayers they are filling the high office of faithful 
reapers there; to the organized benevolence of this missionary era, 
and ask if by their hearty Co-operation and generous contributions 
they are doing their full duty there. And h6w about the all-impor- 



A TRUMPET CALL. 401 

tant work of daily soul culture in themselves. Do they give some 
time daily to the devotional reading of God's word ? Do they bend 
the knee, daily, before the Lord in the closet of secret prayer ? Are 
they honestly trying every day to honor God with their substance 
and the first fruits of all their increase, and to rectify all the errors 
of their outward lives and of their inward affections? Say not 
now that we seek to throw you upon the outward forms of religion 
to the neglect of its inward spirit. We make our plea for both. 
We would see the form of godliness only as the honest exponent of 
its inward power. We make our plea for a religion of the hand, 
of the life, of the eye, of the foot, of the intellect, of the heart, in 
short of the whole man. 

Morever, when I see such fidelity in service, then I see a safe 
rejoicing possible. They who would reap the joys of faith apart 
from the work of faith are attempting to reap in a desert. Laden 
sheaves of assurance are only reaped on the fields of toil. Without 
questioning the truth that God's free grace in Christ Jesus is the 
alone ground of our immortal hopes, we may yet boldly affirm, that 
such hopes must ever be very hazy and uncertain in the absence of 
a willing and self-denying obedience. Who ever reads his title 
clear to mansions in the skies, when he is not willing to gird him- 
self and serve Christ in this present world? And who ever came 
promptly to the full activities of Christian usefulness, and remained 
long in doubt of his acceptance with God? The select joys of 
assurance cluster like the swallows of spring time about the heart 
in which dwells no reluctance in doing the will of God. Most 
instructive is the blending of sacrifices and rejoicing in the life 
of him who wrote our present text. Like warp and woof they 
are woven together in a web of blessing. Hie knew poverty, but in 
the midst of it he knew unspeakable riches. He felt the pressure 
of the yoke and he also felt upon his soul the beams of that best 
light that ever dawned on a human spirit.. Familiar as he was 
with wearying cares, he was not less familiar with the inward rest 
which comes through faith. He could fight with beasts all day, and 
then sleep sweetly at night in the chamber of peace, or if the night 
brought its prison and its stocks he could even then pray and 
praise at the hour of midnight. 



402 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

In what chapter or verse of all his epistles does he moum over 
perplexing doubts as to his personal interest in Christ ? With what 
steadfast certainty does he speak of Christ as his Savior^ of justi- 
fication as forever settled and of heaven as assuredly waiting his 
entrance! The closing sentence of the text opens to us a breadth 
of privilege beyond the reach of our unaided strength. Be thou 
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of 
G-od. Let your fidelity take its measure from his sustaining grace. 
Work out that which he works within. Put yourself under his 
nurture, and see how fruitful he can make you. Act in his strength 
and see how great is his power. Let the endnirance of sufferings, 
the daring of enterprise, the vastness of undertaking, grow up into 
the proportions of his promises and of Ms ability to help. Then will 
life take on largeness, then will broad sails be filled with the winds 
of heaven, then will precious cargoes be landed on the celestial shore. 
And then will the Master say at the final audit, as thou hast been 
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel so shalt thou be of its ever- 
lasting rewards. 



HERBERT FENTOX STILWELL was born near Asbuiy, New Jersey, 
September 1, 1856. His early boyhood was lived in Philadelphia, where his 
father was engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1870. He was baptized 
into the Baptist Church in New Britain, Pa., by Rev. Lewis Munger in 
June, 1872. During his preparation for college he was both a student and 
teacher in the English and Classical Seminary at Doylestown, Pa. He 
pursued his college studies at Bucknell University, where, upon his gradu- 
ation in 1881, he waiS assigned the Latin Oration. In 1884 he wais gradu 
ated from Crozer Theological Seminary, During his student life at Crozer 
he acted as pastor at Immanuel Chapel, under the direction of Dr. George 
Dana Boardman, and the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. In June, 
1884, he was ordained at Freehold, X. J., where he had accepted a call to 
the pastorate. This proved to be a long and faithful pastorate of eleven 
years. The membership was doubled, reaching the 500 mark before Mr. 
Stilwell's departure; a new meeting-house was erected at a cost of, $25,000, 
and fully paid' for ; in all ways, in vigor, resources, and spirituality, the 
church was wonderfully built up. The pastor was active in promoting the 
missionary work also of the State, and he was one of the strongest sup- 
porters and advocates Peddie Institute had in this its period of struggle. 

.Mr. Stilwell, resigned this pastorate in March, 1895, and accepted the 
pastorate of the Calvary Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn. Constant 
advance characterized this pastorate, which was reluctantly surrendered to 
assume the pastorate of the First Baptist CJiureh in St. Paul, Minn., March 
15, 1898. Here he has gathered about him a band of vigorous workers, and 
is happily meeting the problems of thisjvvestern metropolis. Mr. Stilwell 
did not journey far in this change of pastorate, but the journey he did take 
brought him upon one of the most important fields in the Northwest. 

Hard work and responsibility have been Mr. Stilwell's portion all 
through life — a fact which is probably largely responsible for his being the 
man he is. When jNIr. Stilwell was sixteen years old his father, a mer- 
chant, died, and upon the son's shoulders fell the entire burden of the 
family's support. They were then residing in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. 
Upon his father's death he not only succeeded to the headship of the house- 
hold, but also took the elder Stilwell's place as superintendent of the Bap- 
tist Sunday-school, performing its duties well in spite of his youth. In a 
short time he was enabled', though far from '•'well off," to begin preparing 
for college. During this period he supported himself. Harmoniously, 
earnestly, and effectively have the churches wrought under his leadership. 
The result has been notable spiritual advance, the reduction of the church 
debts, and the winning of many souls. Mr. Stilwell has proved himself a 
powerful and consecrated minister, a wise executive, and is well fitted to 
guide the central spiritual interests of two great cities. 
(403) 




,*, 




mmi F. ITILIELL i. 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 405 

XXXIII 

THE CEEATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER 



By Herbert Eextox Still well, D. D., 
Minnesota 

"And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a 
calf, and the third creature had a face a.s of a man, and the fourth creature 
was like a flying eagle." — Rev. 4: 7. 

THE first verse of this chapter affords the key to the interpreta- 
tion of the text, "The things that shall be." 
The book of Revelation is not a book of riddles, but a book of 
grandest prophecy. The language is strange because it is the at- 
tempt to put heavenly glory in the syllables of earth. What John 
saw he tried to tell, but there is no word that can tell God's thoughts. 
They are not thoughts simply, they are thought and thinker and 
thinking. "Thy word is life." So it was that Jesus Christ became 
a man. He was God's word to us. You have stood on the mountain 
summit, wrapped round with the glory of the exaltation, below you 
a mirrored lake lying like an emerald-set jewel on the bosom of the 
lesser hills, a tiny streamlet leaping down the slopes like a ribbon 
of silver, the steep declines, flower-clad valleys, sweeping forests, 
tumbled rocks, grey and ancient and beautiful. About and within 
you an atmosphere of life — above you, skies of supernal beauty — 
did you try to tell it when again you stood amid the commonplace 
of the valley lowlands? Did you tell it? Could you find a word 
equal to the task ? Or, have you listened to an enthusiastic traveler 
returning from his chamber up the Matt^rhorn, or walk over the 
mere de-glace, or his terror in the midnight storm on the billowy 
deep ? Have you caught a conception scarcely from his much labored 
attempt to tell it to you? Has he told you? So feeble is our choicest 
speech that when you stand where your friend stood you will 
exclaim "not half has ever been told me." So I believe was our 



406 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

apocalyptic seer^, honored of God with a view of scenes beyond the 
reach or content of human speech. How feeble it is ! How slowly 
it grows ! 

Turn to Ezekiel and the visions he saw (1 :10), surpassing strange 
and enigmatical his speech of description, as out of the north came 
the whirlwind and the fire, "also out of the midst thereof came the 
likeness of living creatures — as for the likeness of their faces, they 
four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, and the face of 
an ox, and the face of an eagle." Centuries chase each other adown 
the steeps of time, and God opens a door in heaven and permits the 
exile of Patmos to peer adown the vista of heavenly magnificence, 
and the recording seer finds his best expression in Ezekiel's terms of 
the faces — face of a man, face of a lion, face of an ox, face of an 
eagle — a vision of things that shall be. 

The book of Revelation, as I understand it, is the culmination of 
all the books — that tells of what is yet to be. The book of consum- 
mations; the completed redemption; the completed church of God; 
the redeemed and recreated humanity; the perfected kingdom of 
Christ. 

Whatever that may be, certainly it must be complete in its sym- 
metry and harmony. The climax of creation's era was created 
man. The climax of redemption's era is recreated manhood — re- 
born humanity, symmetrically developed character. That unfold- 
ing which is completer than the world's. The earth's most success- 
ful man to-day is the specialist ; the man of one idea strongly mani- 
fested. Beautifully direct to a brilliant success that one idea'd life 
goes like an arrow. But how very narrowed the life often is. It 
is too concentered on one aim to include another. Selfish that life 
is like to be, forgetful of the fact that human lives are interdepen- 
dent. Such a life is not an ideal life. The successful financier is 
of little ideal help to the philanthropist. The successful statesman 
of little ideal help to the carpenter. 

There are lives of broader mould, less direct, less successful in 
the eye of popular judgments, lives that recognize somewhat the 
solidarity of the race, and the stimulating obligations of a common 
brotherhood. Lives that are interested in the beginnings as in the 



THE CEEATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 407 

consuromatioiis, that take time to stop to listen to a tale of trouble 
and alleviate its woe. 

His is a more brilliant career who swiftly flies toward the achieve- 
ment of some cherished ideal, but his is a letter life who delays his 
own that he may help others in their achieving, who is willing to 
weight down his own ambitions with the far-reaching obligations of 
a broad philanthropy. A lightning bolt is brilliant, but the anrora*, 
illumines with a mellow beauty; both rest on the bosom of the^ 
heavens: the one is fearful, beautiful, but blinding; the other 
mysterious and beautiful, but helpful to the "PilgTims of the 
night.'' 

Bu.t diftuseness is not ideal. A lesson in architecture would com- 
pel a study of three dimensions as well as two. A lesson in charac- 
ter building is a study of sublimest architecture. 

Franklin coaxed the subtle electricity down from the heiglits^ and 
a study of humanitj^'s needs has sent it with messages of peace the 
whole world around, and made it whisper the praises of God 
through the deepest caverns of the sea. A man must reach out of 
himself and for himself — there must-be concentration and direct- 
ness; but no man liveth to himself alone, he is a part of a great 
family in which each member depends on every other member, and 
his breadth of thought or purpose must be acquainted with and re- 
lated to the thought and purpose of his fellow-man, and his in- 
spiration must thrill with the heart throb of the age in which he 
moves, and there must be the height and depth, down to the deep- 
est recesses of humanity, to the God image, if you please, in the 
intuitions of the race, and up into the conscious communion with 
Him whose word is our life. 

The error of the world is, in the main, not in its purposed falsity^ 
but in its lop-sided development : its one-sided growth into meteoric 
brilliancy and errancy ; its dual development into haziness of convic- 
tion and lack of directness altogether, or like foundation stones of 
a mighty cathedral without the ultimate erection of nave or altar or 
spire. 

There is an all-pervading trinity essential in all things, whether 
in individual or in the aggregate, "The city lieth four square and 



408 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the length and breadth and height of it are equal." It is the Divine 
symmetry shadowed forth in figures and symbols. We will study 
then 

The significance of the four creatures as a type of ideal character. 

I. A Type of Character as Eevealed in the Four Gospels. 

Supporting the dome of a cathedral are four richly-wrought 
columns of stone upon whose chapiters are carved^ upon one the 
face of a lion, upon another the face of an ox, upon another the 
face of a man, and upon another the face of an eagle. Why these ? 
They are the symbols of the fourfold revelation of the ideal life. 
Why the fourfold ? It is the scheme of inspiration, and not only so, 
it is conformity to the necessary law of completeness. A revelation 
of the life and character of Christ must not be a plane of two dimen- 
sions or of two planes set at whatever angle, but a symmetrical solid. 
Whatever dissimilarity there exists in the gospels, no one departs 
from the one life running through them all. Their differences are 
in a measure due to the personality of the writer and to a definite 
time and purpose which may have seemed sufficient occasion for 
itheir recording. Bu.t greater than personality of penman, or pur- 
pose of formulation, the differences are the several phases of that 
many-sided life. They are the four sides as the writer saw them, of 
the "Stone cut out of the mountain without hands." If we shall 
call to mind the long cherished hope of the Jews, a disheartened but 
waiting remnant left from the buffetings of vanishing empires, they 
did not understand the character or accept the details as consonant 
with the Jewish idea, but the fact they did accept, that the com- 
ing Christ was a coming King. 

The first gospel stands where it logically must if it shall suggest 
the plan of development of that character which shall adorn those 
who are to be "kings and priests unto God." Thus it begins with 
the offspring and lineage of King David, and Jesus Christ comes 
as David's son, the royal heir to the throne of David. The wise men 
of the east ask for the new-born King. Herod is afraid of the new 
king. John the Baptist cries "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
The final temptation in the wilderness is the proffer of the kingdom 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 409 

of this world. When John is beheaded the writer of Matthew has 
JesTis himself take up the cry, "The kingdom is at hand." 

The OTit-reach of the Christ is toward a kingdom. It is that for 
which he came, and again and again he reiterates the likeness of the 
kingdom in his enigmatic parables. N'owhere else appears that con- 
scions and convictive anthority. He states the principles of his own 
kingdom. The treasures of his kingdom he has anthority to trans- 
mit nnder the symbol of the "Keys of the Kingdom.'' He is rnler 
over seas and wind and waves. Supreme over disease, and a poten- 
tate before whom death is powerless. In his own word he said "All 
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, go therefore and 
teach whatsoever I have commanded yon." Looking through the 
veil that intervenes we see the culminating hour of the lion of the 
tribe of Judah. Sitting upon the throne, "Then shall the King say 
unto them on his right hand, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world." Here then is the one idea — 
the idea from which there is no departure, until through the cur- 
tains of darkness that wrapped Golgotha round, he passed into the 
unseen, but. 

There is a wideness in Christ's living 
"Like the wideness of the sea." 

Upon the chapiter of a column over against the face of a lion was 
chiseled the face of a man. 

In the second Gospel we are introduced not to a King but to a 
son, not to a kingdom but a service — service to man, and work with 
men. Brief, intense, active. How the narrative seem^s hurried into 
quicker movement with the frequently interjected words "straight- 
way," "forthwith," "immediate^," and all along the quick moving 
scenes is Christ, the worker. It is activity in all the relations of 
men, "in the wa}^," "in the house," "as he sat at meat," "in the 
synagogue," "by the seaside," so that he had "no leisure even to eat." 

It is the gospel of significant contact and companionship. Christ 
is the carpenter. He is rather a companion working with his disci- 
ples than their master. He is in sympathy with humanity's suffer- 
ings, as, for instance, the raising of Jairus' daughter. In Luke it 
is with the quick decided movement of an all-powerful physician, 



410 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

in Mark he takes note of the grief and distress of the household, and 
adds a word of comfort in the restoration. In this second narra- 
tive there is fullest description of the very expression of the Sa- 
viour's face, indicative of the emotions that are peculiarly human. 
Indignation, grief, compassion, amazement. There are frequent 
expressions of tender endearment. It is emphatically the gospel of 
manly activity in which we are made to feel that God was manifest 
for us men. Intelligent acceptance of him and voluntary subjection 
to him, exercise of man's highest normal functions, belief and obe- 
dience are here. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" 
are among the concluding touches of this vivid portrayal of the life 
manifested among men. 

But there is the third dimension, ^ot only among men is it the 
purpose of Christ to found his kingdom, it is also declared "the 
kingdom of God is within you." 

In the gospel of Luke as nowhere else is there accuracy of detail. 
There is a preponderance of personal interest in classes and individ- 
uals that closely suggests the peculiar personality of the careful 
observer. Is there more direct reference to the individual and the 
family than to the race ? It is the deference that the physician pays 
when he diagnoses a disease and prescribes the remedy. 

Whatever else Luke's gospel portrays, it emphasizes a lost condi- 
tion and proclaims a redemption. It is the gospel of the lost coin, 
and lost sheep, and lost son. It is the gospel of captivity and resto- 
ration. I am come to preach "deliverance to captives" to "recover 
sight" to the blind and "set at liberty" them that are bruised. It 
is the gospel of society's redemption. It reaches the poor, the pub- 
lican, and the social outcast. The Samaritan woman is saved and 
a malefactor from the cross is ushered into Paradise. The beautiful 
and accepted devotion of woman is immortalized. Her tender min- 
istries to the need of the Master, her loving devotion that led her 
to the cross, that brought her at the day dawn to the sepulchre, 
and in the reception of the first command that fell from the lips of 
the risen Lord. Moral obligations inhering in individual posses- 
sions are emphasized in the parables of the rich fool and the good 
Samaritan. It is the gospel of the depths to which the race had 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHAKACTER. 411 

fallen, and of prayer for help. It is oTerarched with Jewish skies 
and marked with Jewish features. It^ redemption is through inter- 
cession with priest, and temple, and altar. 

Beginning with Zacharias, the priest before the Lord, it ends 
with the disciples in the temple praising God. 

But Jewish service without sacrifice is incomplete. In the outer 
court stood the altar dripping with the blood of ox or bullock slain. 
For without the shedding of blood there is no remission. 

But there is not only the redemption from a condition, there is 
redemption to a condition, and in this fourth gospel we are led up 
to the heights of redemption's possibilities. It is the gospel difficult 
to understand as we read it amid the doubt and darkness that 
broods over the earth. It is the holy of holies of the temple. Its 
light is the shekinah light. It is the eagle gospel. It mounts up 
and upward continually, "His wing bathed in the translucent sun- 
beam, his companionship the king of day.'' It is the revelation of 
the heavenlies. Its outbreathings of devotion are as the arising 
odors of incense. The objective changes. The home of earth breaks 
up. but '*In my father's house'' is an abiding place. Earth's attrac- 
tions grov,- less and less. •'Show us the father and it suffieeth us." 
Earth's companionships are not all sufficient. 'T will send you 
another comforter." Prayer now ascends for the finalities rather 
than for the processes. Away from the temporal into the real; away 
from the tempted into the tried; away from the shadow into the 
light; away from the conquest into the glory. 

II. A Type of Character as Eevealed in the ^lan Christ Jesus. 

Whatever i^ true of the divinity of Jesus Christ, there is no ques- 
tion as to the reality and perfection of his humanity. He was ^'in 
all things made like unto his brethren." 

He learned obedience and was made perfect through suffering. 
He was in all essential respects a being like ourselves. "He grew 
weary, he suffered, he hungered, he thirsted, and he had positive 
desires which he expressed. Pie was assuredly a man in physical 
structure and he possessed a human spirit which, mysteriously allied 
with a higher nature, was capable of being trained, enlightened, edu- 
cated." For thirty years, or thereabouts, the educational process 



412 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

went on. He studied in the schools of obscurity, but as the light 
beam first breaks through the fogs of the morning, growing brighter 
and brighter, until the world is lighted with the full-orbed sun, so at 
last he came, the ready, resolute, thoughtful man. A mighty pur- 
posefulness sounds through all his sayings and thrills through all 
his actions. One definite object is constantly before him, absorbing 
all his thought, developing all his energies. 

It was a stupendous assumption that undertook the reclamation 
of his people. But with a courage like a lion he steadfastly wrought 
his convictions into accomplishments, with apparent utter disregard 
of means or opposition. How great his courage was is hinted in the 
fact, that he was a Galilean peasant, humble and unlettered, daring 
to project into the religious prejudices of centuries a religious 
movement that should overturn the world. His doctrine was a com- 
plete contradiction of what the scribes had taught. His striking 
truths shattered the foundations of creed and custom. His anathe- 
mas of denunciation cut like a blade of steel. His independence 
aroused the wrath of Pharisee and Sanhedrim. His consciousness 
that he was doing his Father's will made him a sublime spectacle, as 
with whip cords he rebuked the disregard for his Father's house, or 
as he stood on the temple pavement and awed into weakness the 
minions of the law, who, empt3^-handed, went back to their masters 
saying, "^ever man spake like this man.'' 

But the wonder of the ages is at the self -surrender — the sacrifice 
of the Son of Man. What he might have done, who can tell ? In 
touch with the resources of the eternal Father and yet "The Son of 
Man had not Avhere to lay his head." Worthy of most exalted com- 
panionship he chose the peasantry for his friends. Surcharged with 
the potencies of a leader and conscious of the defects in existing 
organizations, he became a servant to prevalent but unjust laws. 
With a nature keenly sensitive to every expression of selfishness, 
to every jarring discord of inharmonious society, j'-et he did not dis- 
dain the suffering and trials of the poor. He sought the destitute 
and hungry and naked and shelterless. It was humanity's awful 
condition that he ever saw. It must have food — heavenly food or 
die. It must have righteousness for clothing or be exposed to wrath. 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 413 

It must have refuge from the storm of justice or it perishes. Here 
is poverty surpassing man^s energy to relieve. It must be helped 
by one greater than the race. "He was rich, yet for your sakes 
became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.^' He 
emptied himself of his glory that it might fall on you and me. 

But the helpfulness to us in the prosecution of our work is in 
the ideal manliness of the Christ and in his universal sympathy. 
But this is not an involuntary expression. Not for himself did 
"the man of sorrows" shed a single tear. "He was oppressed and 
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.^^ If "his visage was so 
marred more than any man" it was not on his own account, but for 
others. He was touched with a feeling of our infirmities. He 
entered into most intimate relation with the sources of the world's 
woe. Was any aggrieved, so was he; Avas any scorned and ridiculed, 
so was he ; v/as any cast out as inimical to existing customs, so was 
he ; was any anathematized, so was he ; was any crucified as a male- 
factor, so was he. Aye, to the very depths was he a fellow-sufferer 
and a burden-sharer. 

One over-mastering passion was his constant inspiration — the 
only inspiration that begets the solution for the mal-adjustment of 
social forces — the inspiration of love for men. Not for nationality 
or conventional respectability, neither poverty or riches, crudity or 
culture, weakling or potentate, dullard or philosopher, "A man's a 
man for a' that." He had a conception of the infinite value of a 
human soul, and his love for that overleaped all the limits other 
men have put on their benevolences. It was this that inspired his 
personal solicitude. His was no theoretic philanthrophy. It was a 
burning heart held out in his hand. He wept over Jerusalem, 
but he went down into her streets and homes; with his own touch 
healed her lepers, opened blind eyes and fed her hungry. It was not 
the trend of a new truth, but the felt presence of true and tender 
personality. The S3^]labled truth of Christ has been the study of 
disagreeing critics ; the power of the personality, the truth inherent 
in him — never. It is that character of out-breathing intense loving 
sympathy with every form of pain and misery that is contagious. 
It has immortalized itself in the multiplied generations of men. 



414 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

His sympathy has begotten sympathy; and, said that exiled con- 
queror, referring to Jesus, "Millions, to-day, would die for him." 

But the crowning attribute of the character of the man Christ 
Jesus was the upward reach of it. It is this that is not seen by the 
crowds of men — the life lived aloft in communion with the Father. 
The power of the Holy Spirit was ever present with him, upon the 
Spirit he ever depended, and without him his followers are nothing. 
How wide the separation seems between his fullness of the Spirit's 
power and ours. How little our prayers as we look upon his life 
in the Holy Spirit. Eising a great while before day — ^to pray, 
spending the night in the mountains alone — to pray. And they 
knew the place because he often resorted thither — to pray. An 
intensity of prayer that we dimly shadow forth in our conception of 
Oethsem-ane. xl^^e, beloved, and this was the son of God made mani- 
fest in man, that did so need to pray ! World wearied, dazed disci- 
ples, from how far away seems the mandate to fall, "I say unto you 
all — pray !" For only so is the final purpose done. 

The heavenly harbingers of his coming heralded in song the cul- 
mination of his character — "peace," "peace on earth." The peace 
that passeth understanding is the perfecting of the broken harmony 
of the soul with its maker. ~ "To do his will I came," said Christ. 
The study of his life was obedience to his heavenly Father. He read 
it in the sunlight and sea, in flowers, and birds and work. He 
walked with God about him. He had no will outside the Father's 
purpose. It became his life. How far away from his disciples 
again when wonder-struck they heard him say, "My meat and my 
drink is to do the will of my Father." Here was his life and rest. 
Here the secret pavilion in which he could hide away from the strife 
of tongues. 

The purpose of the growing character was complete. It was har- 
monious throughout. The peace of perfect imison. No greater 
-secret could he bequeath to his followers than this when he said to 
them at parting, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto 
jou." 

III. A Type of Character as Eeqnisite in His Followers. 

Eecall for a moment the vision of the apocalyptic writer. It is 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 415 

a throne room in that kingdom which is to be. Eound about the 
throne are the creatures of all comprehensive vision, of ceaseless 
activity, and who direct the adoration of the assembled powers who 
cast their croT\Tis at his feet who sitteth on the throne, and who is 
worthy to receive glory and power. By the throne of earth's poten- 
tates stand the messengers to do their bidding. By the throne of 
the King of kings stand those who are likest the King. He was 
made perfect through suffering. These are they that have come up 
out of great tribu.lation. Only these sing the new song, and follow 
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. 

But the vision is one of consummations. What is to be must be- 
gin and go on to be. The consummated character of the servant 
must be the licibitual character of the servant. Xot all shall sit upon 
the right hand and upon the left in the kingdom, but they shall, for 
whom it is prepared. They for whom it is prepared are they who are 
most worthy. The condition there will grow out of the consonance 
here, "If we endure, we shall also reign with him." 

Consonance with the character of Jesus Christ then is the founda- 
tion element in the character of his disciples. The redemption of 
the man from himself, his sins — ^his sordid earthly ambition, into a 
loving service to him is the Christian's first work. Xot theories of 
expediency or plans of plausible philanthrophy, but clear concep- 
tions of Christ's idea of man's condition and firm convictions of his 
plan of redemption. 

His over-mastering love of men must be theirs who witness for 
him. There must be something of his passion for souls. Fearless 
proclamation of his truth — not denimciatory but conciliatory. Ee- 
viled, revile not again. If buffeted, bless; to the helpless extend 
help; to the hungry give bread; before the discouraged lift up hope; 
before the cl3dng hold up life. "I, if I be lifted up will draw all 
men unto me." Freely ye have received, freely give. It is the debt 
of trust we must transmit to the heirs of salvation. It must be 
delivered before the sun goes down at any cost. Hasten, brother, 
hasten, for the day is passing! Hearken! 

I put my ear toward the sighing of the night winds of a receding 
century — night winds sighing, did I say ? It is the far-off cry of a 



416 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

soul hunger, of untold millions for the bread of life. It is the 
echoed sobbing of souls, dying for the water of life; the anguish 
cry of multitudes smitten with the deadly leprosy of sin. I hear 
the clanking chain of their bondage as they come ; coming from the 
valleys, coming from the mountains, with no cloak to cover their 
destitution and nakedness; tramping their way into the shades of 
an everlasting night. Ah! and brother, methinks mingled with 
their cry is a voice from the unseen Holy One : "It is I.^' "I was 
ahungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me no drink ; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not ; naked, and 
ye clothed me not, for inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least 
of these, ye did it not to me." 

God's calls are not commensurate with our sense of the necessiiy. 
God's calls are never beyond our ability to comply. Our very practi- 
cal methods of this practical age have developed a tendency to esti- 
mate advantage and opportunity and necessity, too largely in term^ 
that are reasonable. God's plans are never unreasonable; but they 
are beyond the reason. Obedience is not begotten of the reason, but 
of a faith. Eeason may not be dethroned, rather exalted; but only 
then as a stepping stone to higher things. When the outermost 
limit is reached, then the realm of faith is seen. God's calls may 
not seem opportune; not always at "a convenient season." Some- 
times at midnight the cry is heard. 

Ours not to reason why; 

Ours but to do — ^mayhap to die. 

There is no logical sequence between the extended wand of Moses 
and the pathway through the sea. There may seem no reasonable 
connection between the steady tramp about a city wall and its col- 
lapse ; but "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the 
fat of rams." 

It isn't logic, it is life. The power the world needs to-day is the 
magnetic power of a consecrated personality. The conquering pow- 
er of a Christ-like character. But brethren, holiness is not instan- 
taneous, and a character is not builded in a day. There must bo hi 
the soul, as in the soil, a seed time and a growing time before the 



THE CREATURE TYPE OF CHARACTER. 417 

harvest. There is no royal road to attaining. There are short 
cuts to the accumulation of knowledge, but there are no short cuts 
to character. When the man speaks he must speak the word^ of 
life — his own life. 

In our processes of culture, we are not aiming to delineate the 
visage of the world's redeemer in a faidtless mosaic, however set 
with gems of the world's best thoughts. TTe are aiming, ever aim- 
ing, let us hope, to reveal his life in living characters. The history 
of the past must be verified, the experiences of the present must be 
recognized, and here are finalities of truth that must be built upon. 
AYherever we seek we shall find his truth. We must sow Christ's 
truth to reap Christ's deeds — we must do Christ-like deeds to reap 
a Christ-like character. The Christ of history, and the Christ of 
prophecy, and the Christ in the heart must be studied and wrought 
tlirough and through the fabric of the soul until the disciple is no 
longer an expression of the truth, but he has become in all his life 
and character the truth, and with Paul can say "I live and yet not 
I, Christ liveth in me." Out of the fullness of such a life may we 
speak. By our words may we be justified as the heralds of Jesus 
Christ on earth, and in the coronation day, when the Galilean is 
exalted on his throne, standing in his presence ma}^ the}' say of us, 
"Thou, too, art a Galilean. Thy speech betrayeth thee." 



418 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XXXIV 
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS 



By John Weaver Weddell^ D. D., 
Iowa 

"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." — Eev. 19: 10. 

THE greatest word ever spelled out in letters of human speech is 
the word, Jesus. "Call his name Jesns/^ said the angel, "for he 
shall save his people from their sins^^; i. e., the equivalent of the 
name Jesus is this : ''Ke shall save his people from their sins/* 
Therefore the whole scheme of redemption is involved in this mar- 
veloiisly and graciously significant term. And when God named 
Jesus, he named his saved people in all ages and climes ; he named 
you, he named me ; for you and I, blessed be God, with all the elect, 
were included in the large content of the eternal N"ame. But, if the 
name Jesus is equivalent, in a sense, to the world's redemption as a 
whole, this blessed word is also the epitome of the complete story of 
redemption. The Bible in its last analysis is simply Jesus, plus the 
person and incident that show him forth; or in other words, it is 
Christ along with the Holy Ghost testifying of him. "He shall tes- 
tify of me," said Jesus. "Men spoke as they were moved of the 
Holy Ghost,'' to tell of Jesus. 

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (II Tim. 3: 16). 
The revised version is misleading at this point, seeming over-nice 
and so darkening counsel by words without knowledge, giving a 
false impression of the Greek text. But what is Scripture? Men 
have essayed of late to give philosophical and scientific response to 
this profound query, dealing much with matters of psychology and 
the rationale of belief. I prefer to get back to the Biblical doctrine 
of scripturalness and to the practical significance of that doctrine in 
our daily devotion and endeavor. A working hypothesis for the 
working Christian. Here it is: "The testimony of Jesus is the 




M, 



JOHN WEAVER WEDDELL was born in 1855 at Pitteburgh, Penn., 
where his father, Rev. P. M. Weddell, was then pastor. He received' his 
academic education in the high school at Dayton, Ohio, and his collegiate 
course at Denison University, ^vhere he graduated with B. A. in 1876, re- 
ceiving his M. A, two years later. He graduated in Divinity in 1880 at 
Chicago, giving a year between to school teaching in Iowa. During the 
next year he was pastor of the seminary church at Morgan Park, 111. He 
took charge subsequently of Dearborn Chapel, and was ordained by the 
First Baptist Church of Chicago in 1884. Dr. Weddell is one of the not in- 
considerable number of ministers that received a good portion of their train- 
ing in the editorial chair, being for fifteen years of his early ministerial life 
on the staff of The Standard, the excellent Baptist weekly published at 
Chicago. In connection with his journalistic work he was more or less 
busily engaged in mission or pastoral service. He was the first Secretary 
of the Chicago Baptist City Mission Society, serving in that capacity two 
years. He was later pastor of the Highland Park Church, whence after six 
years' service he was called to the pastorate of the "Old Tenth" of Philadel- 
phia. After five years in Philadelphia, in which much interest was taken 
in general Young Men's Christian Association, Evangelical Alliance, and 
Young People's work, he resigned to accept, without visitation, a unani- 
mous call to the Calvary Baptist Church of Davenport, Iowa, which he still 
•serves. Dr. Weddell prepared himself for journalism, but felt called to the 
ministry during a revival under Morgan Edwards, while teaching school at 
iSperry, near Burlington, Iowa, for a year following his college course. 
Being of a literary turn, he is much given to the use of his pen. He has 
•contributed articles to Bihleotheca Sacra and Baptist Revieiv, and' also in 
periodical issues of the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadel- 
phia. For eight years he was expounder of the Sunday-school lesson in 
The Standard, of Chicago; and more recently he wrote six serial papers on 
"Devotional Study of the Pentateuch." He enjoys working among young 
men, and for several years past has engaged each winter a week or more in 
college revivals, two years in succession being at Bucknell University, 
Lewisburg, Pa., when a large number of students came out on the Lord's 
side, being one of the greatest awakenings in the history of the school. He 
received his D. D. from Bucknell in 1897. In the summer of 1900 Dr. Wed- 
dell went abroad at the invitation of Dr. T. J. Barnard'o, the celebrated 
philanthropist of London, and took charge for a month of Edinburgh Castle 
services in East London. He gives much time to Bible institute work in 
the local church, giving Monday evening to a Pastor's Round Table, where 
the Bible is taken up book by book in outline course. He has been through 
the Scriptures in this way several times in consecutive study. 
(420) 



THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS. 421 

spirit of prophecy f or, in broad terms, Scripture is the unf oldment, 
in time, through letter and symbol, of Christ Jesus to the world. 
This is the common witness of the Book. Jesus himself said, 
"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
(and — to supply the ellipsis — ye are right), for they are they which 
testify of me." (John 5 : 39.) And John expressly declares at John 
1 : 18, the heaven-side aspect of Christ's mission, when he says (we set 
over the original literally), "The only begotten son which is in the 
bosom of the Father, he is the exegesis." ("He hath declared 
him.") What, in short, is exegesis but finding Jesus in the Word; 
and what is exposi4;ion but preaching Jesus from the Word? Look 
up — lift up. That Southern reporter spoke more wisely than he 
knew when, being sent to write up a certain ministers' meeting, and 
hearing the topic announced, "Exegesis," he put it down in his 
notes, "ecce Jesus — Ijeliolcl the Christ T Would that it might al- 
ways be so. Too often it is exit Jesus — "They have taken away my 
Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." But this is the 
main and manifest declaration of all Scripture, "The testimony of 
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Jesus is the clue and the climax 
both of Scripture and the inspiration of Scripture. Prophecy is 
Jesus foretold and retold. 

I have been speaking broadly and a bit boldly, perhaps, regarding 
this text. Let us get down to a closer study and analysis of the 
thought here in its connections. It is a Scripture that opens out 
more and more luminously as you enter into it, for in this sense, too, 
"the entrance of thy word giveth light." In the royal palace at 
Versailles you press on, in an arrangement of historic sequence and 
cumulative splendor, from one stately apartment to another, each 
interior delighting the eye and clarifying the intelligence until you 
arrive at a kind of centre and climax of interest and light that 
makes the whole to stand out rationall}' and radiantly upon the 
senses. So in the study of the deep things of the Book, we go from 
chamber to chamber, from glory to glory, as it were, each step 
thrilling with new marvel and meaning. 

Or to change the figure a trifle, let us approach the half hid 
significance of this precious message as did the princess who, when 



422 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

she received the beautifully-embossed egg of iron, sent her by the 
prince^, pressed a spring and found within an egg of silver; and 
within that, presently an egg of gold, and at last at the heart of 
all a diamond. It was all good, unspeakably so — ^but it paid to go 
on. There is always more to follow in God^s revelation as in all his 
gifts. Who has reached the end ? "How unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out!" Come, then, let us enter 
the House Beautiful by this open gateway, and let one door lead 
to another; one unfolding suggests another, and all to the glory of 
the name called Jesus. 

1. The testimony concerning Jesus. It is an angel that speaks 
here^ and he gives us report from heaven. And this is his witness : 
"Jesus ! Jesus ! Jesus V He knows nothing but Jesus. And this 
he teaches us, that in heaven, as on earth, there is but one name to 
be spoken — the name of the Lord Jesus. This indeed is the com- 
mon testimony of angels. They are always appearing in the interest 
of their King. Trust no other communications of spirits. They 
are but mutterings from the pit. The angels at Bethlehem, as at 
Joseph^s garden, spoke one word, "Jesus," and called the gaze and 
thought of men and women away from everything else and fixed 
them upon the Eedeemer of this world. The wise men came saying, 
"Where is he that is born king of the Jews ?" It was so in Joshua^s 
day, and with Moses and Samuel and Isaiah and all the prophets, 
the angel spake to them, in language such as they could receive, of 
Jesus. And the prophets and priests and kings of old took up the 
same theme, in letter, and type, and symbol, often trembling at the 
heavy burden and the hid import of their own message; and they 
spake of Jesus. From Genesis to Eevelation the one name is Christ 
Jesus. His voice is first heard in the thickets of the garden, calling 
to lost man; he looks out through the lattice of rite and ceremony 
in the tabernacle ; he goes with the people as the rock of their wilder- 
ness journey down through all the annals of time ; he is the pillar of 
fire and cloud in all the record, the saving salt of the lump. In 
Genesis, it is Jesus, the seed of the woman; in Exodus, Jesus the 
Passover Lamb ; in Leviticus, Jesus our High Priest ; in Numbers, 
Jesus, the Smitten Eock; in Deuteronomy, Jesus the Prophet and 



THE TESTIIMOXT OF JESUS. 423 

Guide. So we might go througli all the sacred record. It is Jesus, 
Jesus, all the way. 

Of course, there is another way to peruse the Book. As literature, 
or history, or science, or comparative philosophy it is good reading — 
the best in the world. But to the reverent intelligence, the soul 
quickened of God, such iLse of the Word is like Jonathan feasting at 
the royal courts with David's seat empty. Eightly perused, we see 
beyond every hillock and through every vale of sacred history the 
King upon his throne, and over all the chapters and between all the 
lines and at the joining of the very syllables, the shining of the 
Face, marred and yet glorified. You have seen the vine so trained 
and trailed in the frontispiece that as it climbed the trellis it made 
to stand out in the whole the beautiful figure of the Christ, knock- 
ing at the door. You have heard of the pin-prick cross. Looked at 
on the low level of the table, it was just a jumble of points and 
marks, but, held up to the light, you discerned the clear-cut lines of 
a cross. So does the Spirit bring out, in letter and life together, the 
intimation of the blessed one, the testimony concerning Jesus. 

2. The testimony of Jesus — i. e., the testimony of Jesus himself 
is the spirit of prophecy. It is Jesus that is speaking all along in 
prophet and angel and apostle. His is the voice that warns and in- 
vites, and his is the figure that rises ; the fire in the bush is he, and 
he the Form of the fourth in the fire. "It is 1." This explains the 
eager disclaimer of the angel here and his anxious, earnest pointing 
away to higher entities. John in his excess of emotion is about to 
worship the angel. *^'See thou do it not !'"' {Opa ^', a strong nega- 
tive). The angel exclaims, ^^orship God I Worship God"! and 
he points right away from himself to Christ, who is God; for he 
adds, "the testimony of Jesus is this spirit of prophecy; which is 
yours and mine.'* Jesus is speaking in the angel, in the prophet, 
in the evangelist. The Bible from beginning to end is Christ^s 
book. His voice it is. "Hear ye him.^' 

This expression "worship him" focuses all witness and homage 
upon Jesus and refers and relates aU tribute and testimony to him. 
He is at once the Liofht of the world and of the Word. In all the 



424 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

sacred pages, it is Christ's face that shines, Christ's voice that 
speaks. "Worship him." 

What now is Christ's own declaration of himself in the Word? 
In a word it is this, "Lo, I come." This is the voice that speaks 
in Genesis at the first, as in Eevelation at the last — "Surely I come 
quickly ;" and the tongue of Gentile and Israelite as well should re- 
spond at once in urgent hope and expectation, "Amen, even so, 
come, Lord Jesus." 

But there are two comings, plainly revealed in this declaration 
of Jesus regarding himself. The first advent in lowliness to make 
reconciliation and atonement, and the second advent in glory to 
make restitution and complete redemption. It is the overlooking 
of this twofold testimony of Jesus that has confused Biblical inter- 
pretation, dimming the light in the Old Testament day and gloom- 
ing its radiance even now. The Jew made the mistake of reading 
in the Holy Oracle only the record of the second advent, the Christ 
of the crown, and ignoring the record of the first or prevenient 
advent which tells of the Christ of the cross. On the other hand, 
the Christians of to-day are confining their thought almost wholly 
to the first advent and forgetting the glorious promise of the second 
coming. The most of us have relegated to a certain particularly 
and gratuitously peculiar people the preaching of that blessed hope 
that should animate us all and that alone will sustain us in the 
conflict. And yet every book of the Bible brings out this truth of 
the dual advent of Christ, first for sin and unto death, and second 
without sin and unto judgment. This is plainly taught in all the 
prophets. Are there two Isaiahs? Yes. The Isaiah that tells of 
the suffering ^Messiah and the Isaiah that in the next breath rejoices 
in the victorious king. The prophets are all alike here. Each seer, 
with a fine disregard of the limitations of time, speaks now of the 
first and now of the second coming. He sees in a flash the Christ 
of Calvary, and the next glimpse that is his is of the Christ of 
Olivet, and he tells it as he sees it. This is his inspiration. ]^o, 
brethren, we are not going to get joy to our own hearts or give joy 
to the world till we take and teach the whole truth as it is in Jesus. 
We shall fail to read the Bible aright until we accept all the light 



THE TESTIMOXY OF JESUS. 425 

that is given. The light shed from the cross back there at Calvary, 
and the light cast full from the throne, not far ahead. I once tried 
to read a book in a large room by a single light at the end of the 
apartment, and it was hard ; in fact, I altogether failed to make out 
the letters and gave up the reading. Then I discovered a light at 
the other end of the room, a better light, which my own head had 
hidden before, and I adjusted myself and the book so that both 
lights could shine upon the page, then the symbols stood out and 
made significant impression upon the eye. So some of us must con- 
fess, for some time we have simply followed the trend and spirit of 
the age, which affects pulpit as well as pew, and ignored in a meas- 
ure one large source of light upon the book, Jesus^ testimony of 
himself — "I will come again : Watch therefore," God helping me, 
I will not be disobedient to the heavenly vision ; I cannot afford to, I 
have no disposition to, in the blessed reassuring light that breaks 
more and more on the page. The wonderment of our intelligent 
brethren abroad is that we on this side the water have so long dis- 
carded this Christly testimony, and I venture to predict that we our- 
selves in our turn will come presently, as a man, to the larger 
knowledge and comfort of this great doctrine. If there be any doubt 
on this point examine the context here. The early part of the 
book of Eevelation has been describing, in great measure, the Christ 
of the cross and the humiliation, but the narrative now gives full 
divulgence of him who has already been repeatedly glimpsed before 
in part — the crowned One; and John goes right on to say, in the 
next verse, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse 
and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; in right- 
eousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were us a flame 
of fire and on his head were many crowns." Preach the Christ of 
the crown to this boastful generation, the Lion of the throne as well 
as the Lamb of the altar. 

3. The testimony for Jesus, or in other words, the testimony 
that is in Jesus — the Jesus testimony — in short, martyrdom. 

Martyr is, indeed, the root of the word rendered "testimony" here, 
and the man who will preach the truth and the whole truth may 
expect a share of it — a share of it even from those who bear the 



426 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Lord^s name. For we shall not ''^see eye to eye/' nor ^Vith the voice 
together shall they sing," until the Lord shall bring again Zion/* 
The brightness of his appearing shall set all things right, and give 
at last one sure ring to the watchman's cry. You note what the 
angel says here, when John is about to fall down before him at 
these divulgences: "See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-servant 
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship 
God ; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 

We have been with the spirit at the holiest of holies of this text. 
The testimony of Jesus means for us the prevalent theme of Christ 
Jesus in all the Word — a Christocentric book of prophecy. This 
is, as it were, the holy place in the textual tabernacle. But the 
holiest of holies, the flashing shekinah truth is the gracious thought 
that on every page it is Jesus himself that is making testimony to 
us and of the things concerning himself, things that we need more 
and more to consider. But now let us come out into the open 
again, and let the light shine out for blessed practical ends into the 
court of the congregation, where the people are. 

The testimony of Jesus is exceeding broad ; it includes all witness 
for him, and Matthew Poole is, as usual, not far from right, when 
he interprets the angeFs words here to signify, "thy preaching the 
gospel, which is thy testimony to Christ, is as much from the Spirit 
of God as my spirit of prophecy ; we are therefore equals, and I am 
not to be worshipped more than thou art." In other words, all that 
I can do and all that you can do that counts on earth or in heaven 
is to testify of King Jesus. 

how this ought to humble us, and at the same time exalt us ! 
It should humble us to think that our light is all a borrowed radi- 
ance, streaming from him who in all the Word and in all time is the 
light of life. It should lift us up to know that we are in this of the 
same character and kind as are prophets and angels, "fellow-ser- 
vants" with them, says the angel in the single and signal testimony 
of Jesus. If spoken for Jesus, says the angel, thy testimony is as 
good as mine. Moses bore the cross, but the crown also was before 
his eyes ; his, too, was the whole testimony of Jesus — he was a Christ 
martyr. So was Abel before him, and Noah and Abraham. So 



THE TESmiOXY OP JESUS. 427 

down the centuries comes the noble procession of the martyrs for 
Christ, the men who with their lives as well as their lips gave unfail- 
ingly the testimony of Jesus; Samuel, David, Isaiah, Micah, John, 
Paul, Peter, the fathers of the faith, the humble company of be- 
lievers to-day, all giving a part in the happy witness. There at the 
front goes the Cross-bearer, soon to be seen in the eyes of all the 
world as Crown-wearer, but a Captain and File-leader "made per- 
fect tliTOugh suffering.^' "'Author and finisher of faith" is he, be- 
cause, as Dr. Alexander MacLaren has lately expounded the word, 
he has exercised and exemplified the same patience and endurance 
that he calls upon his followers to show forth. Pirst-bom indeed 
is he of many brethren — many witnesses. Ours is the testimony 
of Jesus. 

It is the cross mark in these days of prophecy that must ever iden- 
tify the Christian. The testimony of Jesus is given with the sign of 
the cross. This distinguished all the faithful of old. Their roll is 
called in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and they all respond in 
the terms of the faith, that is the faith of Christ Jesus. There is 
a quite significant summary of the whole record at the beginning 
of the next chapter, the twelfth, which says, "Seeing we also are 
compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses," {. e., testifiers, 
the same word used in our text : and then it adds just as significantly, 
^^ooking unto Jesus.** These all looked to Jesus, and so they came 
to look like Jesus, because they had ^learned of him." He was 
the goal of their testimony, as he was the model of their endeavor 
and the source of their strength. So, in turn, may we, and it is 
the testimony of Jesus that unites us all in one and makes us to 
have the family likeness. Every consecrated life to-day bears this 
same mark — the mark of the cross. We bear testimony of Jesus 
tiU he come. The faithful minister in the pulpit or the parish, the 
generous-hearted, self-giving merchant at his desk, or the patient 
workman in his shop, the devoted mother in the home, the humble 
widow in her hut, or the young man or young woman striving for 
an education or learning a trade, to give it for Christ's sake to sav- 
ing souls or to making the world better — all these bear the testi- 
mony of Jesus. And this is a part, a blessed part, of the spirit of 
prophecy. It is not all cross and humiliation, for if you will look 



428 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

into the eyes of the followers of Christ yon will see the far-shining 
of a crown, and in their hearts already is the kingdom begun, and 
the King is on his throne — the testimony of Jesus. 

Fellow-servants of the angels, brethren of the prophets, keep 
the witness clear, for there is another testimony of Jesns beyond 
Golgotha. We have intimation of it in that qniet word spoken to 
the high priest in the court, when he cried out: "I adjure thee 
by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, 
the Son of God." Jesus said unto him: "Thou hast said, never- 
theless, I say unto you. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sit- 
ting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of 
heaven.'^ He is not always to stand bound and mocked of men. 
He is coming in power to judge the world, to vindicate his word, 
and establish his righteous rule. It is this "hereafter" testimony 
that buoys us up in the every-day witnessing, for "when he who 
is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in 
glory," and our witness will then be an open witness. They will 
understand us then, as they do not now, and we shall understand 
ourselves and each other better. "Then shall ye return and dis- 
cern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that 
serveth God and him that serveth him not." 

"Ah, then," said the infidel to the Christian cottager, "you are 
one of those simpletons that in these country places are weak 
enough to believe the Bible. Believe me, my man, that book is 
nothing but a pack of nonsense, and none but weak and ignorant 
people now think it true." "Well, stranger, but do you know that 
weak and ignorant as we country people are, we like to have two 
strings to our bow." "Two strings to your bow! What do you 
mean by that?" "Why, sir, I mean that to believe the Bible and 
to act up to it is like having two strings to one's bow; for if it is 
not true I shall be the better man for living according to it, and 
so it will be for my good in this life — that is one string; and if it 
shovjid be true it will be better for me in the next life — that is 
another string, and a pretty strong one it is." The testimony of 
Jesus is a bow with two strings; its witness is for two worlds. 
Brother, have you the two strings to your bow of testimony ? 



THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS. 429 

I venture to make two special applications. (1.) To God's min- 
isters; be true to the spirit of prophecy. Without doubt, the pul- 
pit of late has neglected prophecy; little is said of it in the schools 
and little use is made of it in the proclamation of the word. It 
has been feared that it might carry us into vagaries of doctrine, 
and so it has been let alone. But there is a worse fate for us than 
vagaries of doctrine, and that is famine and emptiness of doctrine ! 
Scripture was given to be used and a neglect of any part of it 
brings ruinous loss to the church. '^Then shall I not be ashamed 
when I have respect unto all thy commandments.'' We have 
abated the preaching of the whole truth until the Spirit has well- 
nigh died out of the body of Christ, and the world has grown very 
insolent. Are our schools in any degree responsible for this? 
They have brought this historic and literary method well into use, 
and we thanlc them for it; but let us beware of extremes, and that 
is certainly an extreme and hazardous affirmation, sometimes made, 
that prophecy was never an3'thing but mere preaching to the times, 
the predictive element, a simply fortuitous incident of the ser- 
mon. On the contrary, we venture to affirm that the prediction 
was always there, and it was ther^ as the text and major proposi- 
tion of the discourse, I grant you, that explicit prediction with 
regard to nations and individuals was incidental, but the coming 
of the King in grace and in glory, which is the permanent pro- 
phecy of the Book, is ever held in reverent and often ecstatic view; 
everything else is contributory and corollary to that far-off divine 
event. What would the prophets or the apostles say to that easy^ 
empty notion that we have recently seen put forth, that Christ's 
prophecied coming simply means the dawning of a larger light in 
the soul? Xo real, personal Christ — simply a fuller conversion, 
the Spirit's work of grace in the heart! But this the prophets 
and apostles already, to a greater or less extent, had, jet they looked 
forward to something still to come; something infinitely larger 
and more glorious. And still .another has put forth the mild view 
that prophecy in its predictive phase can never be practically appre- 
hended ; it is simply to be employed for its moral effect — something 
akin to the moral influence theory of prayer. Xay, prophecy 



430 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

has a definite end and aim, and here is the clue to the maze and 
the key to the mystery; it ever points forward to Jesus — its single 
testimony. 

(2.) To the rank and file of believers, including ministers and 
all; be true to the testimony of Jesus. All the Book looks for- 
ward to Christ; let all the church look up to him. Be faithful 
to the witness borne to him in the Word, that he died for our sins 
and rose again for our justification, and that he is seated in the 
heavens for our preservation and sanctification, and that he will 
presently come again for our uplift and glorification and to the 
praise of his majesty. Live in this conception of a loving and 
of a living Saviour. Let our living reflect not only his cross life, 
but his crown life. Every Christian should be a witness to the 
Come and the prophecy of the Coming One. The "Light" we are 
to let shine is not the talent or the individual capacity that may 
be ours, but the Christ that is in us ; and so each Christian, in the 
measure of this gift and grace, should let a voice cry out from 
his daily life: "I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I 
am alive forevermore !" x\nd happy indeed shall we be when 
that larger testimony of Jesus, for which, like John on Patmos, 
we now sufl;er loss and affliction, shall be rendered : "and have the 
keys of hell and death." 

Till then, keep the banner waving for Christ, the King. Every 
word and deed of the devoted life, however humble and obscure, 
every surrender and sacrifice indeed, provided it be for Christ's 
sake, is seen in heaven and gives a brighter lustre to the crown 
that waits. Yea, it makes its lustrous witness for Jesus on earth, 
too, for those who have eyes to look. "What see you yonder?" 
said the cruel inquisitor to the next victim in turn, as he pointed 
to the waves of the creeping tide engulfing a martyr at the stake. 
"I see," was the calm answer, "Christ suffering in one of his 
members." So of every heroic self-devotement and of every lit- 
tle deed or duty done for the Master's sake; it is Christ-witness; 
it links us all in one; for whether it be prophet, apostle, martyr, 
or saint or sinner, saved by grace, "the testimony of Jesus is the 
spirit of prophecy — worship God !" 



RUFUS PERRY JOHNSTON was born June 9, 1861, in Macon county, 
Mo. His father^ William Johnston, joined the Confederate army a month 
later and fell at the siege of Vicksburg. His mother died when he was little 
more than five years old. From that time he lived with an uncle on a farm 
in Rand'olph county. Mo. He was converted at the age of twenty, and 
though his immediate family were members of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church, he joined the Baptists and was baptized by Eev. S. Y. Pitts. 
He attended the public school for three or four months in" the winter, when 
the duties of the farm would permit. After his conversion, being impressed 
that he ought to preach, he attended a session at the Lincoln University, 
Lincoln, 111, From there he went to William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., 
from which institution he was graduated with the degree of A. M. in 1888. 
He then attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, 
Ky., graduating from- there in 1891 with the degree of Master of Theology 
(Th. M. ). He wais pastor at Lathrop and' Roanoke, Mo., churches while in 
college. While in the seminary he supplied at Midway and Mount Sterlings 
Ky., and was pastor at Athens and David's Fork. He remained with this, 
latter church for two years after graduation, when he accepted a call tO' 
the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of St. Joseph, Mo. He remained 
there for four and one-half years. During this time a handsome new house 
was built and the lower rooms occupied. In 1897, in company with his wife 
and Professor John R. Sampey, D. D., of the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, he visited Europe, Egypt, and Palestine, thoroughly exploring 
every part of the last country. In February, 1898, he became pastor of the 
Third Baptist Church at St. Louis, Avhere he remained for three years. On 
May 1, 1901, he became pastor of the Fifth-Avenue Church of New York 
city, succeeo'ing Dr. W. H. P. Faunce. 
(431) 




I ^= 



Hi 



god's ultimate PUEPOSE IX HUMAN LIFE. 433 

XXXV 

GOD^S ULTIMATE PUEPOSE IX HUMAX LIFE 



By Eufus Peeey Johnston^ D. D., 
Missouri 

"(Now this, he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the 
lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that as- 
cended far above all the heavens^ that he might fill all things.) And he 
gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and 
some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work 
of ministering, unto the building up of the boay of Christ: till we all 
attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." — Ephesians 4 : 9-13. 

THE processes of nature are ever toward definite ends. Whether 
the working force be inherent and resident in nature or 
divinely imparted, whether the goal be accidental or set in divine 
wisdom the results are always specific. For 

"The world was built in order 
And the atoms march in time. ' ' 

There are no fortnitoiis and haphazard conclusions. There are 
no circuitous and purposeless strivings. Every force is struggling 
to express itself in definite form and symbol. It cannot be denied 
that nature works toward a purpose whether or not that purpose be 
divine. Otherwise science would be impossible; there could be no 
law, no order, no uniformity, and the beautiful anthem of the uni- 
verse would become a jangling discord. It is impossible to escape 
the conviction that not only "Through the ages," but through the 
whole creation "one increasing purpose runs." 

In the vegetable and animal kingdoms the primal, dominant, 
impulse is reproduction, perpetuation of kind. The struggle every- 
where throughout these kingdoms is to fulfill the divine injunction, 
^'Be fruitful and multiply." The flower blooms and dies to repro- 



434 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

duce its kind. The corn of wheat falls into the ground and perishes 
with the song of future harvests in its heart. The stunted plant 
clings to the barren rock, sun-scorched, and wind-swept, and puts 
fiorth all its energies to mature a seed, lest its miserable kind perish 
from the earth. 

This struggle has never ceased. What a mighty effort nature is 
making all around us to fulfill God's ancient command. How hard 
has been the battle of life in these lower spheres is evidenced from 
the extinct and deteriorated species which mark the path of the 
world's development. Fossils of extinct species are found every- 
where. The struggle proved too severe for them and one day the 
last representative laid down to die and end the race. Other species 
have grown smaller and weaker in a constantly losing contest, until 
the pigmy of to-day is the descendant of the giant of yesterday. 
What pathetic struggles has the world witnessed. What tragedies 
does the scientists read as he traces the history of life upon the 
globe. But, on the other hand, how tenacious has been the strug- 
gle is evidenced by the fact that certain existing species have sur- 
vived from the very beginning. They have endured all change, 
have eluded or overcome all enemies. What a genealogy is theirs. 
It has been a survival of the fittest. And with them the might to 
live has been the certificate of right to live. 

The entrance of man, a superior intelligence, upon the scene, gave 
io this primal impulse to multiply a direction toward improvement. 
His mission was to culture and dress the garden. He was to have 
dominion over the animal and the plant. Under his hand the end 
sought has been reproduction plus improvement. To the burden of 
being was added the duty of better being. Quality began to have a 
significance and exert an influence. The divine injunction to mul- 
tiply was coupled with the equally divine injunction to improve. 
Not life merely, but more life and fuller has been the demand. And 
this motto in its broadest significance has been the kejmote of 
human progress. Its obligations were seen to extend not to plant 
and animal merely, but to rest upon man himself. Civilization has 
been measured by the fullness with which this principle has been 
grasped and carried out. 



god's ultimate purpose IX HUMAX LIFE. 435 

Man's constaiit aim in his relation to nature has been better 
results. Keeping this goal in view he has taxed his ingenuity and 
bended his efforts to produce more and better fruits. To attain 
this end he has sought everwhere the elimination of the useless 
and inferior. The process has been twofold — destruction and de- 
velopment. That which was useless and hurtful, and that which 
has refused to improve he has sought to destroy as cumberers of the 
ground. That which has yielded to his culture he has developed 
toward perfection. The warfare against inferiority in the animal 
and vegetable world has become more relentless as man himself 
has advanced in civilization. His edict has been, improve or die. 

Results have justified his efforts. Under his culture the wild 
rose has become the IMareschal ^eil, the American Beauty, the 
Bridesmaid and other rose candidates for popular favor, all of them 
marvels of beauty and perfection. He has developed the knotted 
and sour crab into the perfect apple, the wild grape has become 
under his culture the rich purple clusters that smile in the vine- 
yards of Europe and America. The same improvement in wheat 
and corn and in vegetables has rewarded his efforts. Similar re- 
sults have also been achieved in tlie animal world. The splendid 
specimens of animal and vegetable perfection which everwhere 
delight the eye would have been impossible but for the intelligent 
and persistent culture of man. He has been the husbandman that 
has produced them. And were his culturing hand withdrawn they 
would revert to the wild inferior t37)e. 

^ow something similar to this has been going on in the human 
race. Here God is the husbandman. His is the culturing, direct- 
ing intelligence. And just as the florist seeks a perfect flower, just 
as the pomologist seeks a perfect fruit, just as man in any sphere of 
his dominion seeks a perfect result, so God seeks the flower and 
fruit of a perfect manhood. It is not enough for man to be merely, 
he must be better. To birth is added the necessity of growth: to 
existence the duty of improvement. Just as all human processes 
in the plant and animal world have been toward perfection, so 
all the processes of divine grace have been toward human perfec- 
tion. Wherever God has touched human life it has been to improve 



436 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and ennoble it. The apostle declares the end of divine culture to 
be "that Jesns Christ may fill all things. '^ That is, that man may 
^^grow up in all things in him, till he come to the fullness of the 
measure of the stature of Christ.^^ Taking this verse then in con- 
nection with the whole trend of Scripture teaching and with the 
noblest results of science, it seems but truth to say that the ultimate 
purpose of God in human life is the production of a Christlike man- 
hood. All the processes of heaven work toward this transcendent 
result. Every divine intervention, revelation, institution moves 
toward this goal. To this end the eternal has broken the silence 
that enshrouds him and has spoken to man. To this end angelic 
messengers on wings of light have come to earth bearing revela- 
tions divine. To this end prophets and holy men of old spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Spirit. To accomplish this result 
God^s only son lay an infant in Bethlehem's manger-cradle, while 
angelic hosts sang glory to God and peace to men. For this end 
he grew into manhood, a perfect pattern, a "Crystal Christ.'' To 
this end he lived, he wrought, he loved, he suffered, died and was 
buried. To this end he broke the prison bars of death and came 
forth victor from the grave. To this end he ascended on high "lead- 
ing captivity captive and giving gifts unto men." "To this end 
he ever liveth to make intercession" for them that come unto God 
through him. It was for this he sent the Holy Spirit on wings of 
fire. For this end he built strong the church upon the rock that 
the gates o't hell should not prevail against it. To this end he gave 
some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and 
teachers for the perfecting of the saints. In the accomplishment of 
his purpose God has ordained that the church with its ordinances 
and offices, that school and college, science and art, literature and 
history, yea that all things should work together for the develop- 
ment of a Christlike manhood. Just as under the direction of hu- 
man intelligence and oversight every part of a great manufacturing 
plant works together for the production of a perfect article, so under 
the direction of divine wisdom all things in God's providence is 
working together for a perfect man. "He is the one far off divine 
event toward which the whole creation moves." Man in the image 



I 



god's rLTi:MATE PURPOSE IX HUMAX LIFE. 437 

of God was the consummation of creatiTe energy and skill. All that 
came before was but a preparation for. and a prophecy of him. He 
was the end seen from the beginning. The cycle was complete when 
he stood forth clad in the image of God. Divine love and wisdom 
had no higher work. And from the sad morning of the fall ''a. man 
like iinto the Son of God*' has been the consummate goal of divine 
purpose. The church, the school, the ecclesiastical official, the 
statesman, the worker in any department, who loses sight of this 
end, mars the harmony and thwarts the beneficence of God's perfect 
plan. Xot only the Sabbath, but churches, ordinances, officers, or- 
ganizations were made for man. And the supreme test of all things 
will not be what manner of men developed them, but what manner 
of men they helped to develop. Do not despise manhood. Do not 
put a light estimate upon the elements that constitute it. Do not 
thwart the efforts for its attainment, for it, in its Christly beauty, 
is the priceless gem, the perfect fruit which infinite wisdom is 
yearningly seeking everywhere and at all times. 

The method by which the Almighty- has elected to achieve this 
consummate end is through the processes of birth and growth, re- 
generation and development. He by his holy spirit has kissed the 
human spirit into life divine. He is the author in man of a new 
life ; a life "l)orn not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God.'' His in fini te power implants the germ, 
imparts the vital force, enkindles the sacred flame. ''He hath creat- 
ed us ; we are his own.*' In this thing which men call regeneration 
there is a sacred mystery. It is a union of the divine and the 
human. It is the divine imparting itself to the human that the 
human may become divine. It is the God of heaven reincarnating 
himself in human life that he may make us partakers of the divine 
nature. It is the story of Bethlehem retold, the mystery of Bethle- 
hem repeated. The mystery is there, but no greater than that 
which shrouds the origin of any kind of life. Then, too, there is 
an analog}- between God's processes in natural and spiritual things. 
Eegeneration and development of the soul life, as taught in the 
Word of G^d and in human experience, are no more mysterious than 
they are in the plant and animal life about us. Science adds its 



438 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

testimony to that of Scipture, declaring that all life is divine. The 
only explanation of life in its very lowest form is a self existent life. 
The Christian calls that life God. Science may have a different 
nomenclature, but the thing itself is the same. We see then this 
mysterious force imparted to the protoplasm. We come in contact 
with infinite manifestations of it on land and sea. Why should it 
then seem a thing incredible that he who imparted life in its full- 
ness to the lower orders should stop short of fullness in the case 
of man. Why should it seem a thing incredible that as he made 
man in his image in the beginning, and made himself in man's 
image in the redemption, that he should now beget us sons of 
God in Christ Jesus? 

After the mystery of birth comes the mystery of growth, after 
regeneration comes development. The babe must become the man. 
The germ must produce flower and fruit. The divine must blossom 
into beauty, purity, gentleness, helpfulness, and strength. The 
human must be transformed, transfigured into the divine. Christ 
must be formed in us not only the hope but the realization of glory. 
Man looking into the face of the "strong Son of God'' as in a mirror 
must be changed by the same spirit into his image from glory to 
glory. In this stage of progress man is not left an orphan. The 
same infinite love that imparted the life directs its unfolding and 
development. Infinite wisdom is marking out the path of pro- 
gress, and infinite tenderness is leading untried feet in the way. 
He who sees the end from the beginning keeps the goal in view. 
He will never leave us nor forsake us; neither shall his sovereign 
purpose fail. 

While regeneration and development in Christian life and graces 
are wrought directly in the individual, they at the same time in- 
directly affect society as a whole. As a people accept Christ, Chris- 
tian influence, ideals and standards more and more prevail. The 
leaven of individual piety permeates the whole mass. The eleva- 
tion of the unit tends to elevate the sum of the units. The result is 
a growing Christian civilization; not that all the people are Chris- 
tian, but that Christian principles have a more or less perfect sway, 
The progress is slow; for 



god's ultimate purpose IX HU:\IAX LIFE. 439 

"Heaven is not rea<?hed by a single boimd ; 
We build the ladder by which Tve rise 
From the lowly earth to the vanlted skies, 
And moimt to its summit round by round. ' ' 

Progress in the last analysis means the eli mi nation of the infe- 
rior and the substitution of the superior. The had must ever give 
place to the good, the good to the better, and the better to the best. 
The history of man's development is the record of this process. 
Among nations, ciTilizations, and religions there runs the inexorable 
law that the lower mnst yield to the higher. And when this change 
has been thwarted, the nation, the civilization and the religion have 
been swept away. The people that refnse to improve are doomed. 
The edict of the Power that makes for righteousness rings through 
all history, ^"Improve or die.'*' As the races of the Promised 
Land were swept away by -ftie hosts of Jehovah to make room for 
higher moral ideals, so the process continues to this day. Pagan- 
ism, polytheism, fetishism, with all their superstitions and debase- 
ments, must give way to the worship of the trne God and to the 
hosts of the army of tnith. The people who will not progress in 
moral character must inevitably be- cut on. as ciimberers of the 
ground. The divine title to life is development. The eternal pur- 
pose is a Christlike manhood. At last, in moral as in physical life, 
the fittest will survive. And it will everywhere appear that it is 
"snrvival by improvement." The world is not ruled by armies and 
navies, by "reeking tube and iron shard," but by moral ideals. For 
back of all, above all and underneath all is the power of a divine 
purpose working resistlessly toward its sublime realization. The 
supremacy of intelligent moral conviction is daily becoming more 
marked in the world's affairs. Xever before has the question, "Is 
it right ?" had such force in the councils of the nations. In history, 
in the arts of peace, and in the issues of battle, emphasis is being 
put upon man, not men; upon quality, not quantit;\\ God counts 
not by census reports, but by moral results. Civilization is coming 
to be measured in terms of divine thought. China vastly out- 
numbers the United States but she weighs vastly less. 

The process in national life is duplicated in that of the individ- 
ual. God is seeking here nobler types. He is leading man out of 



440 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the lower and carnal into the realm of the spiritual. He is cultur- 
ing the divine and eliminating the satanic. He is feeding the 
angel and starving the beast. And just as the nation that refuses 
to improve must perish, so the man that responds not to divine cul- 
ture must fail. "The wages of sin is death." And sin is clinging 
to the flesh and rejecting the spirit. It is following the "wild hyena 
hungers" of the carnal and refusing to be lead by divine love into 
"the infinite ascensions of the soul." 

In harmony with this eternal law the Father does not save men 
regardless of character. Character is the certificate of salvation in 
terms of moral manhood. It is the flower and fruit of divine life 
and culture. It attests salvation. It is the proof of progress from 
fleshly ideals and lusts toward the perfection of Christ. It is no 
whimsical edict, no arbitrary decree, which says the drunkard and 
the blasphemer and the vicious cannot enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. It is the simple statement of a moral impossibility. 

The eternal purpose of God moves on toward a certain consum- 
mation. Its processes are inexorable and unavoidable. Its mighty 
currents cannot be withstood. Man is the arbiter of his own destiny. 
He that refuses to march to the divine music of the law of progress, 
who refuses to strive for the realization of a Christlike manhood, 
who prefers the lower to the higher, the carnal to the spiritual, the 
earthly to the heavenly, he shall perish. "For to be carnally minded 
is death." But he who hears God^s voice, who keeps his face toward 
the light and his soul open to the truth, he who moves to the 
rhythm of higher laws, who discards the flesh for the spirit, the 
temporal for the eternal, the visible for the invisible, he shall abide 
forever. "For to be spiritually minded is life and peace." 

"Let us keep 
Clean channels for the instincts which respond -.j 

To the unutterable sanctities that sweep 
Do^\^l the far reaches of the strange beyond, 
Whose mystery strikes the spirit into fever 
And haunts, and hurts, and blesses it forcA^er." 

"Build for thee more stately mansions, my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll; 
Leave thy low- vaulted past; 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven, with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 



PHILIP V.'EXDELL CRAXXELL was boru in Albany, X. Y., December 
26, 1861, of good Baptist stock, his maternal grandfatlier having been a 
pioneer Baptist preacher in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He was trained 
in the Albany public schools, graduating with honors from the Albany high 
school in 1877. In 1882 he graduated, also with honors, from Dartmouth 
College. The next year he was principal of the graded school at LeRays- 
ville. Pa. Here he became intensely concerned as to his life work and his 
pasition before God, and surrendered his soul to Christ and his life to the 
ministiy. He was baptized into the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Albany 
by Dr. Henry M. King early in 1883. In the fall of 1883 he became Super- 
intendent of Schools at Luverne, ^Minnesota, and in 1884 was married' to 
Miss Fannie E. Grout, of that place. In 1885 he entered Rochester Theo- 
logical Seminary, from which he graduated, also with honors, in 1888. On 
Xovember 9, 1888, he was ordained as pastor of the church at Baldwins- 
ville, X. Y. This pastorate of nearly five years and a half w^as marked by 
solid growth and deepening unity in the church, and considerable numerical 
and material advancement. Toward the end of this pastorate he received a 
call to become head of the Tlieological School at Yokohama, Japan, which 
he was obliged, on account of family reasons, reluctantly to decline. March 
11, 1894, he became pastor of the First Church of Corning, X'. Y"., remain- 
ing there nearly six years. The complete clearing of an $8,000 debt and 
the healing of divisions were the principal features of this pastorate. The 
net gain in membership was large, and the Sunday school especially made 
great advancement. In January, 1900, he became pastor of the First Bap- 
tist Church of Topeka, Kansas, which occupies the most important field in 
the State. In addition to his pastoral work he is a frequent contributor 
both in prose and verse to the denominational press and to such papers as 
the Christian Endeavor World, Forward^ Epiiorth Herald, and the Sunday- 
School Times. In June, 1901, Ottawa University conferred the degree of 
D. D. upon him. On May 28, 1903, he was installed President of the Kan- 
sas City Baptist Theological Seminary, but up to the present is still pas- 
tor at Topeka. 
(441) 




^CfllLBF W. S^AmELL i. i. 



THE HISTORY OF A DERELICT. 443 

XXXVI 
THE HISTOEY OF A DEEELICT. 



By Philip Wendell Crannell, D. D., 
Kansas 

"Lest haply we drift away." — Heb. 2:1. 

ONE of the saddest sights at sea is that of an abandoned ship. 
The lookout on the bridge or in the cro'nest, as he strains 
his eyes east, north, west, south, catches sight of some dark object 
outlined against the sky, or the gleam now fitful as the firelight, 
now with the regularity of the signal mirror of sunlight reflected 
from wet surfaces that roll in the sea. It is not a steamer, for no 
long trail of smoke follows her. It can hardly be a sailing vessel, or 
else it is one of strange and unlmown rig. But at last they draw 
near to the strange object. A boat is lowered, brawny arms send 
it dancing over the rising waves. _With difficulty they board the 
rolling hulk. As they leap over the side, it is a scene of desolation 
that greets them. Her foremast has snapped ofi close to the deck, 
only the stump of her mainmast is standing, the mizzenmast, and 
that alone is unbroken. From this hangs a loose spar with tangled 
ropes and a piece of sail. This swings and hammers. The wire 
stays of the top-spars have held them, broken off as they are, and 
they have been pounding the ship's shivering sides in the awful 
wind, one of them driven by the furious force of the waves has burst 
through the planking like a battering-ram and is stuck fast. The 
deck and masts are a tangle of wire cordage. Eailings are carried 
away, the main hatch has been swept off, the deck is broken, the 
pumps are smashed, the water tank dashed against the rail. More 
significant than all, the steering wheel is racing now this way, now 
that, as the waves sweep the rudder back and forth. Its spokes are 
splintered. Half its rim has been carried away by a falling boom. 
All this the quick eye of the sailor grasps in a moment. They 
descend into the fo'k'sle and galley. There are the supper dishes. 



444 TPIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

just as they have been left, a loaf of bread half cut away, a soup bone 
on the floor. They pass into the cabin. Deserted! But what is 
that ? A letter nailed to the table. With one wrench of a knife the 
nail is loosened and they read : 

"Bark Alice Roy, bound for Quebec, dismantled in a hurricane 
the night of August 19th, two days out from New York, off Nan- 
tucket Shoals. Officers and crew saved by English steamer bound 
for London. 

Master, James McMurtry. 

Mate, Thomas Teery.^' 

And so with all her rich cargo within her bosom, her hull un- 
wounded she is left to drift up and down in the steamers' track. 

Such is the story of the sea the pilot-boat brought back to us one 
day. 

A derelict is an abandoned ship, a ship that drifts. I^o hand is at 
her wheel. No pilot guides her course. As helplessly as a log she 
rolls in the long wash of the sea or is pushed on before the gale, use- 
less to any one, a menace to every one. God help us, there are lives 
like that ! Masts may or may not be broken down, sails may or may 
not be shredded by the wind, rails carried away or not. This 
ship may be a shapeless hulk or it may be to-day a stately pleasure 
yacht with every spar and stay and sail intact, without a scratch 
on polished sides or dent in even keel, but there is no guiding hand 
at the wheel, no steadfast eye keeps gaze on star or compass. The 
crew may be still on board. Accomplishments, attainments, endow- 
ments may make up a splendid force of men, but they lack one 
hand, the pilot's ; the wheel races, now this wa}^, now that way ; the 
ship of that human life flees now before the west wind, now before 
the east wind dragged northward or southward by the invisible tug 
of this current or that, and so goes drifting up and down the ocean 
of life, getting nowhere, a menace to every life that comes near it. 
We watch them as they heave in sight upon the sea and we say sadly 
as we see them, "Rudderless, pilotless, derelict!" 

Study with me the history of a derelict. How it came to be a 
derelict, what its middle history, its voyages and its achievements, 
and what its end is — the unguided life. 



THE HISTORY OF A DEEZLICT. 445 

How does a derelict come to be one? How does a ship come to 
be abandoned? How does a life come to be Tinguided? The old 
htilk rolls and tosses^, helpless, wretched. On another day 

"She stands 
With her foot upon the sands 
Decked with flags and streamers gay, 
In honor of her marriage dav, 
Eeady to be 

The bride of the gray old sea ... . 
Then at last 

With one exulting, joyous bound, 
She leaps into the ocean's arms! 
And lo, from the assembled crowd 
There rose a shout, prolonged and loud, 
That to the ocean seemed to say, 
Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray, 
Take her to thy protecting arms, 
With all her youth, and all her charms l" 

From that to this, how ? 

Many are the ways. It was an awful storm that struck the Alice 
Pioy. Bowling along, all sails spread, the crew did not notice the 
signs of sea and sky, and the blast beat her over on her beam ends, 
tore ofi her masts, lashed her quivering sides with her own spars, 
pounded her with airy and watery battering-rams and drove her 
crew from out her. Some awful calamity, some sudden attack of 
Satan, some unexpected storm of sin, some blast of temptation 
swooped down upon that life just laiinched, not two days out, and 
took heart and hope and conrage and will away, and on a starless 
sea, or nnder a sky bright with promise to saner souls, the life drifts 
now. ••'Xo nse to straggle, no nse to strive. Life's first great failure 
means I can never succeed.'' Snch is the wail of that beaten life. It 
is not true, but while it is believed, one more derelict is added to 
ocean's sadness and ocean's dangers. 

It became a derelict because insidions disease or slow, creeping 
cold has sapped or frozen the life of the crew. I have read of those 
who boarded a floating hulk and found there a crew of dead men. 
In the forecastle dead men. In the galley a dead man. In the cabin 



446 .THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

dead men. The deadly sway of the yellow fever was over all. I have 
read of those who passed a full rigged ship, sheathed in ice. Her 
hull was plated with ice. Her shronds were sheathed in ice. To 
them clung sailors sheathed in ice, and icy to the heart. At the 
wheel a form still with death, sheathed in ice. That may be a story, 
but it is true. Sin sapped the power of the will, a secret disease 
poisoned the fountains of life, a wicked habit, a subtle worldliness 
relaxed the muscles of the guiding hand. It came very slowly. Life 
struggled long, conscience fought its fight, but one by one the forces 
of life or of control or of enthusiasm or righteousness surrendered 
or sought the inner fastnesses and were there shut up, half dead, or 
dead. Now the life drifts up and down at the call of every passing 
wind of pleasure, impulse or circumstance. 

Sometimes there is a mutin}^, quick decisive work. The rebel- 
lious crew seize the captain and the steersman, and go sailing on 
their own account. Sin masters conscience. Appetite conquers self- 
control. Ambition deposes principle, and the ship rushes headlong 
before the gale. 

But did you ever hear of one who launched his ship upon the 
sea for a long voyage without any steersman, any pilot, any plan? 
There never was a hand upon the wheel, it always raced to and fro 
as the waves swept the rudder backward and forward. It always 
obeyed the present current and the fickle wind. It had no aim. It 
never sailed against the wind. Was there ever a shipmaster as in- 
sane as that? N'ever, with a ship of wood and rope and iron, but 
with immortal souls, capacious for heaven or for hell, countless ship- 
masters ! We see them all around us. Let her drive ! Spread all 
sails! Give her head! Let her drive where she will! The 
unguided life ! 

But what is her middle history? The intermediate story of the 
abandoned ship ? 

It is a story of fruitless, because aimless, wanderings. She never 
gets anywhere. She has plenty of sailing, but she makes no port. 
She is no nearer port this month than she was last. If as in one 
imaginary story of the sea, there were those on board who under- 
stood the significance of it, the oscillation from nowhere to nowhere 



THE HISTORY OF A DERELICT. 447 

would be most terrible. Look at the people around you. Morally, 
intellectually, spiritually, where are they going? Nowhere! And 
they are going there at lightning speed, some of them. They will 
arrive before many days. Unconscious ? That is the tragedy ! 

It is a story of strange alternations. Headed north to-day and 
south to-morrow, far up in the icebergs^ track this month with the 
fog and chill over life and soul, far do\m to the Southern Trades 
next month or two, where the brain reels under the awful glare and 
the "paradise craze" tantalizes its delirious victims; bounding high 
with hope to-day, over on its beam-ends to-morrow, now dancing 
over laughing ripples, now driven like a leaf before some demon 
of the hurricane. 

' 'Oh, well for him whose will is strong ! 
He suffers, but he cannot suffer long. 
He suffers, but he will not suffer wrong! " 

On him, too, the north wind swoops, but he is ready ; it drives him, 
but it cannot drive him far. Him, too, the undercurrents grip, but 
he makes the winds nullify the waves and the very waters that seek 
to drown him lift him heavenward and bear him to his port. 
, That is the life-history of the unguided soul, as far as itself is 
considered, alternations, fruitless wanderings. But there are others 
to be considered. The chief meaning of the derelict at sea is not its 
loss but is menace. It is one of the awful perils of the deep ! Who 
can forget Victor Hugo's description of the cannon that broke loose 
on shipboard ? He describes it as a living thing, possessed by a devil. 
Its fearful leaps and bounds and plunges, its returns and ricochet- 
ings seem like those of some infuriated demon on fire with a malice 
and a cunning supernatural. It batters the ship's sides, it finds its 
way to destruction over the crushed bodies and severed heads of men. 
What that escaped carronade is in the ship, the black hulk of the 
derelict is in the sea. It ranges up and down like an animated bat- 
tering-ram, seeking what it may destroy. There is no avoiding it. 
The Inchcape rock is terrible, but it is stationary. You know at 
least where it is not. A derelict sunk hea^y in the sea sometimes 
afloat just beneath the surface, is the Inchcape rock set afloat with- 



448 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

out a bell. No man knows where it is or where it is not. The course 
of a certain famous floating wreck was noted one season by ships 
that sighted her. She drifted up, down, over, across, hundreds of 
miles. Another steamer is a terrible thing to meet, but she has lights 
and carries boats to save. An iceberg is more terrible. "Captain/^ 
said one of the women on shipboard, who exist to make life pleasant 
for that long-suffering functionary, "Captain, which would you 
rather meet at night, another steamer or an iceberg?'^ The cap- 
tain and the spectators were speechless for a moment. But he col- 
lected himself and calmly said, "Madam, an iceberg does not usually 
carry lights and boats." But the iceberg does often send a warning 
chill ahead of it. The derelict displays no lights, carries no boats, 
sends ahead no chill. In the darkness she drifts in front of jout 
rushing bows and your great steamer plunging through the night 
with the force of a million cannon balls crashes into her and sinks. 
The derelict is one of the most dreaded dangers of the deep. But 
it cannot compare with that moral derelict, an aimless life. Stone is 
weight}^ and sand is weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them 
both. An unguided life is a fireship sent discharging rockets and 
bombs in every direction. There is absolutely no knowing when or 
where or how it may involve your happiness and mine in a loss we 
cannot avert. Its ill-considered rashness may send the railroad 
train that carries our loved ones speeding over a precipice. Some 
temporary appetite or passion or whim may cause him to do that 
which shall destroy our noblest hopes and plans for a liftime, A 
moment's contact of that fever-smitten life may inoculate with eter- 
nal evil the life and soul of one over whom we have travailed in 
prayer and longing. It may sweep along in its careless voyage to 
eternal night, one who but for that had reached the shining port. 
The wildcat engines that go pounding over the rails with no guiding 
hand at the throttle are not as dangerous. You can see and hear 
them coming. You know that they can move in but one direction. 
But no man can reckon on a fool. If a man's aim is a wicked one, 
you can reckon on that, foresee his movements, keep out of his way, 
but if he has no aim, no man can tell from what quarter or in what 
way he will hit next. The warship's tactics may be guessed, the 



THE HISTORY OF A DERELICT. 449 

derelict is unpredictable. I had rather let loose upon our streets a 
lioness robbed of her whelps than one of these idle, good-natured 
lives. They will burn your house down to warm their hands. They 
will cut down your choicest trees to make a whistle. What they 
will do next, only God knows ! Such is the history of the derelict, 
for itself uselessness and wandering, for others menace and injury. 

What is the end of the derelict ? One end in various forms. De- 
struction ! Man and nature and God are all against it. If there is 
no change, if no pilot is admitted on board, if no ship tows it into 
port, destruction. Sometimes a gradual destruction. Each wave 
that dashes over it contributes to its dissolution, snatches a splinter, 
helps to sm^ash a plank. The sun warps its timbers. The salt water 
eats into its skin. The barnacles cluster on its keel. The teredos 
bore into its sheathing. Its masts grow shorter. It sinks deeper 
into the trough of the sea. It is dangerous yet. But one day it 
shivers, shakes, settles. "Thank God, it's gone!" and everybody 
breathes a sigh of relief because the man is dead. 

Sometimes the process is still more gradual. Nature does not 
always take the trouble to destroy her derelicts, she segregates them. 
The bullet in the flesh would do harm. She makes a cyst about it 
and leaves it there. So this useless life gathers such sea weed that 
at last she takes it and floats it out of the way into the Sargasso 
sea. Many lives are like that. ISTobody cares for them, everybody un- 
derstands them, influence gone, power gone, ciphers in existence. 
They did harm once. They can't do any now, or good either. They 
drop out of life and nobody knows it. Their names were famous 
once. But men start with surprise when possibly the newspaper 
speaks of it. "Why, I thought he died forty years ago !" He did ! 
Nay, rather now he is dead, we find that he had never lived ! 

Sometimes the process is not so gradual. This is a lumber ship, 
waterlogged, unsinkable by any gale, too massive to be borne off to 
Sargasso sea. It must be gotten out of the way. It must not men- 
ace life and property any longer. Men have tried to tow it ashore, 
but it is useless. Cables parted under the strain. It would not be 
captured. No, there is only one cure for it. Dynamite. 

A while ago there set out, in fact, continually there are setting 



450 THE AMEEICAX BAPTIST PULPIT. 

out, gOYernment vessels in search of famous derelicts. Their mis- 
sion is to destroy the destroyers. They cruise up and down in the 
supposed track of the enemy. When they sight it, they make for it, 
board it, deposit their dynamite, set their fuses, retire to a safe dis- 
tance, and wait, not long. Sometimes it takes many successive 
charges, but they follow it up until only a few scattered timbers are 
left to tell the story. Be it known to all the world that the more 
harmful an aimless life is, by reason of its position, its ability, its 
intellect, the more desperately on its track are the dynamiters of 
God. The chase may be long but it will be decisive. 

Whether in one way or another, nature and man and God are 
against the aimless life. The life that has God in it, as any life 
may, is a self -repairing and a self-perpetuating life; the life that 
drifts is a blot, an inertia, a pestilence upon this sea of time. May 
none of us live it. May none of us find our last home in sunless 
depths or Sargosso sea. May all of us take on board the one true 
Pilot, keep all our powers submissive to his sway. Then, whatever 
gales may blow, whatever currents tug, whatever derelicts infest our 
track, our Pilot shall safely guide us home, for he always guides 
aright — for us the peaceful harbor, the quiet shore, and when we 
have rested for a little, grander voyages in seas where no rocks are, 
where no wrecks float, the boundless ocean of God's love and pres- 
ence. 



H. OWAIX ROA^LAXDS was born in ^^'aukesha, Wis., of Welsh parent- 
age. He was religiously nurtured in the Presbyterian Church, to which 
church his mother belonged. While quite young, however, he was baptized 
into the First Baptist Church at Pewaukee, Wis. He entered Colgate Uni- 
versity to prepare for the ministry. He graduated in 1S74 with the degree 
of Master of Arts, after taking a full course in college and the Theological 
Seminary. On his graduation he accepted the pastorate of the First Bap- 
tist Church of Whitesboro, N. Y., where he remained' five years. During 
the succeeding five years he was pastor in Oshkosh, Wis. He left the pas- 
torate in Elgin, HI., with a membership of over a thousand. He was pastor 
of the La Salle-Avenue Church in Chicago for five years. At present he 
occupies the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln, Xeb., a large 
and influential position in the denomination; the city is an educational 
centre, where over four thousand students attend the different universities 
and colleges. Here he has labored for over six years. His church has over 
six hundred members and one of the largest Baptist congregations in the 
Xorthwest. A few years ago The Standard, of Chicago, while publishing 
his portrait under the caption of "Our Denominational Leaders," spoke in 
part as follows: "In Chicago Dr. Rowland's has repeated the large success 
attending his ministry elsewhere. As a pulpit orator he has few superiors 
in our denomination. He has baptized~many hundreds. He has traveled 
extensively, visiting Europe twice and seeing with the eye of the scholar, 
poet, and thinker. He has identified himself with our most important 
denominational interests, written extensively for the religious press, for 
theological and literary reviews, and has done exceedingly clever literary 
work. In 1888 he followed Drs. Annitage and Peda'ie in the annual 'theo- 
logical lectures' at Colgate, and was honored in same year with the degree 
of D. D. from his Alma Mater. He has also lectured in Kochaster Theologi- 
cal Seminary and in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago; 
preached also before Williams College faculty and students. As preacher, 
pastor, and denominational leader, judged by the rich fruitage of his 
labors, by the esteem in which he is held by his brethren, and by the in- 
fluence of his life and' character, none of our ministers holds a higher place 
in the confidence of the denomination than does H. 0. Rowlands." Dr. 
Rowlands preaches and writes fluently in the Welsh language, although he 
never has been the pastor of a Welsh congregation. His father's brother. 
Dr. John Rowlands, is pastor in Wales of one of the largest Welsh Baptist 
churches in the world. 
(451> 




%m ^iw ^ 



AN" EASTER SERMON. 453 

XXXVII 
XN EASTEE SERMO:Nr 



By H. Owaix Eowlands, D. D., 
!N"ebraska 

"And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith 
is also vain." 

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of 
them that slept." 

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 

"But every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits; afterward they 
that are Christ's at his coming."— 1 Cor. 15: 14, 20, 22, 23. 

THE text presents. three great principles or truths of the Chris- 
tian faith. 

I. The argnment of Christianity for its claims to be a divine 
religion — that it has a right to the f^^ith of man and authority over 
his life and conscience. The argument is based, not on its excellency 
as a code of ethics or on its benevolent mission in the world, but on 
the one great fact — ^the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, there is no such supernatural 
religion as Christianity. Its teachers are "false witnesses," its be- 
lievers are credulous dupes, and "of all men the most miserable." 
The first heralds of Christianity pivoted their message on this fact 
of the resurrection. In their sermons and letters they demanded 
the faith and acceptance of men for the gospel because it was veri- 
fied by the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was "proved to be the Son 
of God by his resurrection from the dead." 

Following that supreme credential, that stamp of genuineness, 
and dependent upon it, came the life, theology, philosophy, hope, 
and blessedness of Christianity, as commending it to men's reason, 
conscience, and love ; but always the basal, pivotal truth of our reli- 
gion is the fact of Easter. Because he did rise from the dead he 
is the Son of God, the Lord of Life, and King of Kings, and has 



454 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. • 

the right of rule over the race of man. The resurrection is his title 
to the throne of the human mind and heart. 

Nineteen centuries of the best history of man have come from the 
Bethlehem manger. Since then there has been in the world a social, 
ethical, and religious force — a civilization named Christianity. It 
has worked political and moral revolutions and changed the course 
of human history. It is to-day more living, aggressive, and powerful 
than ever. It is directing the path in which the ages move, it is ever 
opening new avenues for the feet of knowledge, and setting the 
chimes of progress to holier movements. It has more believers and 
devotees than ever, and their number is increasing with every cycle 
of the sun. Hospitals, asylums, homes, and other blessings follow 
its path as flowers bloom in the footprints of spring, as sheaves in 
the paths of summer. Such an effect must have a cause. We can- 
not admit the existence of the light and ignore the sun; of the 
stream and deny the fountainhead. The power and influence of 
Jesus in the world are felt and admitted by all. 

What is there in his life and death to account for this ? A mirac- 
ulous birth? An incarnation of deity among men was not an idea 
materialized first in the Bethlehem stable. Babylon and Egypt 
ascribed such an honor to their kings, and Greece and Eome claimed 
it for their heroes, and the claim Vv^as sincerely acknowledged, but 
when those nations died their claims also perished. Honorable 
descent and wealth have done much for public men. Gautama was 
the son of a king, and Mohammed was wonderfully helped by a for- 
tunate marriage. But the putative father of Jesus was a poor arti- 
san living in a contemptible village. He himself spent thirty years 
of his life making ox yokes and cartwheels, mending plows and 
stools. So far as we know, he made no impression on his neigh- 
bors. He was not a literary character ; not educated, as men at that 
time called education. Yet his fragmentary sermons and talks, as 
they have come down to us, are the seed of the greatest libraries of 
the world. There is in their clear, calm depths a wisdom which the 
plummets of nineteen centuries have not fathomed. On the front 
of every age they seem to be written with a divine chemical fluid 
which no influence can blot or power erase. Social influences have 



AN" EASTER SERMON. 455 

done much to enlarge the influence of men, and Jesus placed social 
life on a new basis and regenerated it to new purposes. But he had 
no social position. He was the companion of common people and 
the friend of the outcast. In the hut of the fisherman he was a 
comrade, in the cottage of Bethany a guest, but in the parlor of Caia- 
phas and palace of Pilate he was a disgraced, chained prisoner. His 
moral teachings were indeed the best man ever taught ; but they were 
what any inspired messenger of God might utter. David, Isaiah, 
and John also spoke words of gold from lips of wisdom. He wrought 
miracles ; so did the ancient prophets before him and apostles after 
him. He was benevolent, wise, and righteous; so were Socrates, 
Daniel, and Aurelius. He was indeed immeasurabl}^ greater in those 
features and graces ; but the difference cannot account for the meas- 
ureless influence of his name and the abiding force of his teaching. 

In some respects he was significantly wanting in characteristics 
that have belonged to the epoch-makers of history. He has won 
more victories than Caesar; Napoleon pales before the splendor of 
his achievements; but he was not a soldier like Joshua or David or 
Alexander. He commanded an army of twelve fishermen, and 
promptly rebuked the disciple who appealed to the sword. He said 
the "meek should inherit the earth." The dove, not the vulture; 
the lamb, not the lion, were the types of his government. 

He is to-day reorganizing governments, molding empires, and 
creating nations; crowns and thrones are at his feet. But he was 
not a statesman like Moses, Caesar, or Gladstone. He had no^ 
place to lay down his head, and he made short work of all political 
questions brought him by tempters, either by repelling them or using 
them for a spiritual lesson. 

History with its rhetoric and partialisms has done much for repu- 
tations. The cruel Achilles shines lustrously in the radiancy of the 
genius of Homer; Aeneas was not as great as the muse of Virgil 
presents him, and Evangeline is much adorned in the poem of Long- 
fellow. Jesus has created history, inspired the noblest poetry; his 
name has made the canvas breathe with purity and the marble to 
pulsate with heroism; but no historian gilded his life with rhetoric 



456 THE AMERICAIT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and praises. Four -unlearned men prepared brief, "unadorned, frag- 
mentary, and disconnected histories of the few years he lived. 

His death was pitiably pathetic. Other men as well as he died for 
their convictions or to bless their fellow men, as Leonidas and Win- 
kelreid did. There are the tnrbnlent mnltitude, the frightened dis- 
ciples, the weeping women, the lonely mother, the gory gibbet, the 
lond wail, and the collapse of life, l^othing there to stir a muse or 
move an artistes brush or chisel! His death was not a "jeweled 
crown on a golden life.^' If his life had ended with that tragical 
death, the incarnation wonld have been a mj^th; the story of the 
miracles, the tale of the crednlons ; his death the accident of turbu- 
lence — at best the martyrdom of an enthusiast ; his claims the visions 
of a dreamer, all preaching of him "vain,'^ and all faith in him also 
"vain"; for his claims for pre-eminence are based on his declara- 
tion that he is "equal with God," the source and giver of life to all 
who believe in him. An abiding death would contradict all such 
claims, for he himself would be the helpless victim of death and the 
eternal prisoner of the grave. A religion inspired by faith in such a 
person could have no power ; it would be on a level with the specula- 
tions of India or the extravagances of Mecca. 

But, when we add to that wonderful life and awful death the sub- 
stantiated declaration, "Christ is risen indeed," then all the records 
and teachings of the written Gospel are natural, harmonious, and 
true. They fit the life and character of Christ as the dawn fits the 
rising sun, as the light becomes the day. 

He who could rise from the dead must have been the incarnate 
God, for God alone has life and immortality; the miracles he 
wrought were the mere alphabet of the crowning miracle, the resur- 
rection; his sublime, impeccable, holy life became his character as 
light becomes the sun; his death was not only a testimony of his 
love for the truth, but was as he claimed, "giving his life for the 
sheep ;" it was atoning, sacrificial, and vicarious. 

The Holy Spirit shows the importance of the resurrection as the 
stupendous, basal fact of Christianity in substantiating by such wit- 
nesses and proofs as testify to no other event in human history. The 



AX EASTEK SEEMOX. 457 

prophecies of a thousand years point to it. Jesus declared repeatedly 
he shotild rise from the dead. After his resurrection he was seen 
many times by his disciples — some of them most skeptical of his 
identity — and recognized as the risen Jesns. They gazed on him, 
felt of him, and satisfied their dotibts. When their evidence was 
called in question and they were arrested, tortured,, and crtielly slain 
for their testimony and preaching, they yielded their lives a pledge 
of the truth of their message that they had "looked upon' and had 
been with the risen Christ and had seen him ascending into the 
heavens. , Those who helped crucify him believed in the risen Lord. 
So glaring was the fact that even the enemies did not care to deny it. 
Other witnesses of this fact are the Christian church with its 
sacred ordinances of baptism and the Holy Snpper, memorials of 
the death and resurrection of Jesns ; and Easter, the memorial day 
of the event. Fifty-six generations have passed since the first Easter 
morning, and the name of Jesus holds a firmer spell over the race 
of man than ever. "The waif of Bethlehem, the boy of Xazareth, 
and the carpenter of Galilee" has been turning the tide of human 
history into new channels, and the pierced hands have lifted the 
centuries to swing on new hinges. 

The secret of this mysterious energy is : Jesus is not a dead hero, 
but a risen, living, reigTdng leader. His warm blood flows through 
the veins and arteries of his great religion; his heart is beating 
against the ribs of the ages ; for he is the living Lord of lords and 
King of kings. 

Xot on the Bible, however stibstantiated, does the Christian reli- 
gion rest for its support. The existence and splendor of the sim do 
not depend on a text-book of astronomy : it may be farther or nearer 
than our mathematics make it: its glow and life do not depend on 
the speculations how the solar fires are fed : so not on Scripture or 
theology does the divine religion depend for its verification, but 
upon the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and is now pouring his 
life into the life of the race,, and life is even its own best witness. 
**Xow is Christ risen from the dead/* and we preach him and believe 
in him as the risen and living King. On his head be many crowns I 
11. Faith in the immortality* of man is confirmed into an as- 



458 THE AMEFtlCAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

snrance and a pledge by the resiirrectioii of our blessed Lord. He 
is the ''^first fruits of them that slept." 

That there is a life beyond death has always been the hope of love, 
the poet's dream, the prayer and instinct of the race. Men have 
always recoiled from the rumor that death is the end of all, and be- 
yond it is the blank of unending silence and dreamless sleep. The 
grave is not the temple of man, nor the worm his priest. The bricks 
of Babylon, the granite of Egypt, the poetry of Greece, and tradi- 
tions of all nations show that the heart of man in all ages hoped and 
believed in immortality and prayed the great Father to give back the 
sweet life death had taken. 

But before the coming of Christ a strong unbelief had crept like 
an eclipse over the radiant truth. Eome sung to her colonies that 
death was the "end of all." Among the chosen people, the richest 
and most intellectual sect, the Saddu.cees, taught there was no future 
life. JSTeither spirit nor angel stirred in its lethean silence, and 
death was the horizon of all human life. In the Orient, Buddha had 
the ear of the great Aryan race, and he persuaded them that life was 
the greatest curse, and the greatest blessing Vishnu had for man was 
to blot out his personality in a pulseless K"irvana. The phalanxes 
of death were beating back the troops of life and planting the black 
flag of despair on the farther banks of the grave. The reason for 
this hopelessness was, the doctrine of immortality had always rested 
on sentiment. But no hope or faith can live long on sentiment; 
they need facts to sustain them, as a system of planets needs a solar 
centre. Men had seen the ages going down to death, but no one re- 
turned from the strange, invisible shores to tell what was beyond 
and on what country the dark waters laved. 

At last the problem was solved, the anxious question of the ages 
was answered, for a great fact burst like a radiant sun in the life 
of the race, around which its hopes and faith might ever revolve and 
receive life and lustre, for mark : there v\-as no doubt of the death of 
the One on the middle gibbet. After he uttered a loud wail his face 
was seen dropping and resting like a white streak on his breast. To 
make death still more sure, the soldier lifts the sharp steel toward 
his side; it slits the skin and divides the flesh, pierces the pericar- 



AN EASTER SERMOIs^. 459 

dium^ and enters the hearty, and in its path follow blood and water. 
No doubt he is dead ! He is buried in a new grave, the huge stone 
rolled on the entrance. Sixteen soldiers watch the contents and the 
penalty of death enforces vigilance. The military power of the 
Eoman empire is pledged to keep that tomb sealed and repel all 
intrusion. 

But behold! with the dawn of the first Easter morning around 
that tomb is a play of light that makes the soldiers as dead men ! 
The stone rolls away, brushed by a seraphic wing, and out of the 
house of death comes forth alive the crucified Jesus, girded with 
power, nov/ the conqueror of death and the Lord of life, and on the 
territory of the grave he delivers the immortal inaugural: "I am 
he who was dead and am alive, and lo, I live forevermore." "Be- 
cause I live ye shall live also." 

Jesus is the first sheaf of the harvest of the race of man that shall 
yet be gathered. His resurrection is the pledge that all the hosts 
of the dead shall rise. They will come from battle-field, where life 
was thrown away as of no value; from ocean depths, from lone 
deserts, from hidden graves. The whole earth will quiver and agon- 
ize at the second birth of the redeemedl-ace into a life incorruptible, 
glorious, and immortal. 

III. The resurrection of Jesus reveals som^e of the conditions of 
the future life. Before this event, even those who firmly believed 
in future immortality had crude and low conceptions of the state 
of the departed. The Greeks fancied their heroes werg wandering 
in Hades moaning away a dreary existence. Among the Hebrew 
people questions were asked such as. If a woman married more 
than once in the present life, whose wife would she be in the future 
life ? There was nothing elevating or inspiring in the faith ; it was 
the toy of speculation, the trellis of vagaries. 

The resurrection of Jesus shed much light on that strange future, 
for it is a type of the resurrection of all. (a) It is shown that death 
does not bring the spirit into a dreamless sleep, nor is it a suspension 
of its energies. To the redeemed thief Jesus said: "To-day thou 
shalt be with me in paradise'^ — a higher transition into a broader 
life, intenser consciousness, and larger intelligence than is possible 



460 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

on earth. The soul will not be clogged by flesh and hampered by 
the limitations of mortality as a bird is wired by the cage against 
which it beats; but in the possession of its natural freedom it will 
move as a wave of light on the confines of new worlds, and the in- 
finite disclosures of spiritual mysteries and glories will eternally 
greet its growing passion for knowledge. 

(&) After the resurrection, Jesus was no longer earthly and 
local ; he belonged to a spiritual order ; he appeared and vanished at 
will. One of his disciples is bidden to touch his hands and feet ; but 
as he reaches to do so, he exclaims, "My Lord and my God !" When 
he walked by the sea of Galilee, it was not the eye of Peter that first 
knew him, but John's quicker intuition of love. At last the trans- 
formation is complete, and from Olive's top he ascends in a cloud 
and is lost to earthly sight; he enters the unseen Holy of Holies. 

In that record we learn that the earthly body passes away with 
death. "Flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of heaven." 
The '^ody of our humiliation" will be "changed and fashioned like 
unto his glorious body." There is awaiting the soul a spiritual body, 
seraphic in nature and celestial in substance. It will not be limited 
by the material, its vision will be telescopic ; its powers will not be 
local and temporal; age will not line its visage nor pain mar its 
beauty nor sorrow corrode its youth. Its passions will be pure, its 
appetites clean ; the joys of youth immortal will forever flow through 
its life; every fiber will quiver with the onrushing strength of life 
glorious and eternal ! Such is the " house not built with hands — • 
eternal in the heavens." 

(c) With the passing away of the earthly body, all kinship and 
affinities based on it will also perish. Jesus declared that the closest 
of earthly kinship, marriage, will not survive death. He also said 
that his brothers and sisters were those who did his Father's will. 
He forbade the loving woman to clasp his feet after the resurrec- 
tion, implying that the former earthly attachments had ceased. Only 
spiritual kinship and affections are deathless. John was the "be- 
loved disciple" before his death, and after the resurrection the old 
love had leaped over the grave, and John was still the "disciple 
whom Jesus loved." Death has no claim only on the flesh and blood 



AN EASTER SERMON. 461 

of mortality. The dust asks for nothing but its own. Love, friend- 
ship, spiritual attachment, are not born of earth, and the grave will 
not hold them. 

Herein is answered the old question of anxious love, "Shall we 
know our loved ones in the afterlife?" Yes, we shall meet and 
know them in their glorified state. We shall love and be loved with 
intenser affections than was possible in our gross earthly life; for 
affections will be purified of all dross and selfishness, love will be 
"like the love of God," and it will be nourished by food meet for its 
nature. 

(d) The resurrection of Jesus throws light on some of the rela- 
tions the unseen world holds to the present. After his resurrection 
he communed with his disciples and promised that after he went 
to his Father he would be with them still in spirit and person ; thus 
showing that there is a communion, spiritual and real, between the 
nnseen world and ours. The inspired letters unfold this truth, and 
we read: "Our conversation (living, society) is in heaven" — and 
Hebrews 12: 22, "Ye are come (not, "you will come by and by," 
but are already "come") unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of 
angels * * * and to the spirits of just men made perfect." In 
the same letter (12 : 1), the apostle, after naming in the foregoing 
chapter a host of departed saints, who by faith had been crowned 
victors, and referring to the straggling pilgrims of earth, he writes : 
* * * "We also are compassed about by so great a cloud of 
witnesses," as those who run for prizes in the Grecian games were 
surrounded by their friends who cheered and inspired them to 
victory. The argument of the comparison is that around the toiling 
children of God on earth are their spirit friends, the radiant hosts of 
the redeemed, and they watch with eager interest and by the myste- 
rious influences of their invisible presence — means unknown to mor- 
tals — they help and inspire the saints of earth; they are "minister- 
ing spirits" to those who seek salvation. 

This doctrine is a great comfort to those who are weary in the 
hardships of life, whose trials and bereavements make them lone- 
some. The dead are not dead. Beyond, the grave is tremulous 



462 . . THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

with life, intelligent, and loving. The holy men and women who 
have been flocking through the ages out of this life into the pres- 
ence of God — they are not beyond the memories of earth, not 
beyond its scenes; they are with ns, for they are with Jesus, and he 
is with ns. They are with God, and we who love God are also with 
him; and it is this coil of flesh that bedims our eyes from seeing 
the holy departed in their spiritual robes compassing, sympathiz- 
ing with, and cheering the pilgrims of earth. 

This is the holy vision of Easter. The day is well represented 
by the familiar painting of a cross rising out of the darkness of 
earth, symbolizing the fears and sorrows of men, even their death; 
and from an unknown eternal region stream upon it lambent rays, 
bathing it in marvelous glory, an emblem of the new hope and new 
life of man ; and in the radiance of that light we, with the doubting 
Thomas of old, fnll of faith and joy, turn to him who died and is 
now alive, and say with the rapture of love: "My Lord and my 
Godr 



JOHN FREEMAN MILLS was born November 5, 1863, at Sparta, Onta- 
rio, Canada. Converted at the age of fourteen, he soon after began to attend 
the high school at St. Thomas, Ontario. Two years were employed in teach- 
ing. Preparations were made for the study of law, but a partial conviction 
that his life ishould be given to the work of the ministry, caused him to 
spend a few months at Woodstock College before making a final decision. 
Later he felt '"^^'oe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," and began to 
preach, at once. Some years later he received the degree of B. A. from the 
University of Toronto. Vacations were spent preaching at Essex Centre, 
Kenmore, at the missions of the church at Ottawa and JarA'is Street, To- 
ronto; and at New Sarum, where a prayer-meeting had not been sustained 
for months, he had the joy of seeing fifty-six follow Christ in baptism, 
thirty of whom had been his pupils while teaching. During the rapid 
growth of Sault Ste. Marie he was sent by the Home Mission Society to 
organize a church there. In the autumn of 1890 his work in Ontario ceased 
and he began to study at the Rochester Theological Seminary; the next 
summer found him engaged in mission work in the rising city of West 
Superior, Wis., where he dedicated a mission chapel and formed associa- 
tions of a permanent character, meeting her who two years later became his 
wife. A desire to work in the West, and the growing fame of the University 
of Chicago, drew him to the DiAinity School of that institution, where he 
also became pastor of the May wood Church. A few months before gradua- 
tion a call was accepted to Urbana, 111. After three years the house of wor- 
ship was outgrown; for several weeks the pastor gave his whole time to 
securing subscriptions for a neAV building. To make room for this the par- 
sonage was moved. A church costing $25,000 was erected and dedicated 
free of debt. Excepting parts of two years, when the energies of both pastor 
and people were mainly consumed on the new building, there was an almost 
continuous reviA^al, 345 new members being received, the Sunday evening 
"after-meeting" and personal work being the chief human instrumentalities. 
A pleasant feature of the Urbana pastorate was the large number of stu- 
dents from the University of Illinois to which the church was permitted to 
minister. On August 1, 189S, he accepted a call to Grand Forks, North 
Dakota, the largest Baptist church in the State. Work began there Sep- 
tember 1st. Two years later 103 had been welcomed to the fellowship of 
the church. The parsonage has been moved to make room for the model 
Sunday-school buildings. This furnishes all modern appliances for 
church work and doubles the present seating capacity. This gives 
the church a property worth $30,000. Several professors and students 
of the University of North Dakota are members of the church. As 
time will permit the pastor is pursuing a Ph. D. course of study in his- 
tory and sociology. He has continuously served as a member of the Board 
and Executive Committee of the Baptist State Convention, acting for a 
time as Corresponding Secretary. In 1899 he was elected a member of 
"The Congregation of the Ll^niversity of Chicago" for a period of ten years 
by the alumni of the Divinity School of that institution. At the May Anni- 
versaries of 1901 Mr. Mills was elected a member of the Board of Managers 
of the American Baptist Missionary Union. He and his people on De- 
cember 12, 1901, dedicated their new $26,000 house of worship free of 
all debt. In the early summer of 1903, Mr. Mills was elected by the North 
Dakota Sunday-school Convention a delegate to "The World's Sunday- 
school Convention," which meets at Jerusalem in April, 1904. He has 
already secured his berth on the steamer for this visit to the Orient. 
(463) 




^! 



F. IILLI. i. L 



THE SUPREME PURPOSE. 

XXXYIII 

THE SUPEEME PUEPOSE 



465 



By Eev. John Ereeman Mills^ B. A., ' =-• 

iN'orth Dakota 

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." — ^jVIat. 6 : 33". 

THESE words are a part of ^'^The Sermon on the Mount/^ one 
of the most searching and helpfiil portions of God^s word. 
Through it Jesus Christ as a teacher clearly outshines all other 
teachers of the ancient and modern world. This wonderful dis- 
course furnishes a very strong argument for his divinity ; for, deny- 
ing this, how can we possibly account for such wisdom? The 
Christ of the cross is not prominent, but we hear the ideal monarch 
promulgating the laws by which his kingdom of righteousness is to 
be goyerned. 

In the preceding verses, Clirist has been warning men against 
undue seeking and anxiety for material things. "Be not anxious .^^ 
But this evil in life cannot be remedied by negative effort-s only. 
He noAv places before us this positive precept, as the best means of 
correcting the evil he has been rebuking. By giving our first at- 
tention to spiritual things, we shall escape unnecessary care about 
temporal matters. Would you drive out the darkness, let in the 
light. Would you keep the heart free from evil, fill it with good; 
it must be filled with something, for nature always abhors a 
vacuum. 

I 

We are commanded to "seek the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness." 

What are we to understand by the phrase "kingdom of God?'' 
It is used synonymously in the ^N'ew Testament with "kingdom of 
Christ"; and "kingdom of heaven." Prof. Stevens, of Eochester, 
defines it as "The spiritual polity founded by Jesus Christ." Luke 



4:66 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

says: ''The kingdom of God is within yon/' Paul tells ns that 
''The kingdom of heaven is righteousness, joy, and peace/' 

This heavenly commonwealth is not bounded by oceans, seas, 
lakes, rivers, parallels of latitude or longitude; climatic or ethno- 
logical differences are no bar to a common citizenship; it demands 
the same allegiance of its subjects, whether they be found in the 
ice-bound regions of the north or the sunny fields of the south; 
this allegiance consists in a complete subjection of the heart and 
life to the will of the divine monarch. In the Jewish people we 
find a symbol of this spiritual kingdom; scattered over the face of 
the earth, they still continue to be distinct from the nations in 
"^hich they reside, refusing to coalesce or be incorporated with 
others. In this kingdom we find the one abiding reality on earth. 
The ancient empires came and went. Eome styled herself "The 
Eternal City.'' But like some magnificent oak proudly lifting its 
^branches above the smaller trees, seemingly strong enough to stand 
against the fiercest storms for centuries, suddenly it falls, revealing 
the fact that the heart had been gradually eaten out by insects. So 
the vices and luxuries of Eome made her an easy prey to the vigor- 
ous barbarians who swept down from the north. Yet it was in 
the midst of all these convulsions that Saint Augustine sat down 
and wrote his book, "City of God." "The world passeth away and 
the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for- 
ever." In the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth, we find 
the only key to "The Philosophy of History." Divorced from this, 
history is only "A series of kaleidescopic changes, the wild dashing 
of waves on an unknown shore, the rolling of a stone up hill, which 
no sooner reaches the summit than it begins to descend." 

The term "Kighteousness" is not to be taken in the technical 
and theological sense of the righteousness which belongs to every 
believer in virtue of the atoning work of Christ. We are to seek 
personal righteousness, constantly striving to attajin the ideal 
standard of conduct as laid down in the "Sermon on the Mount." 
We sometimes hear men saying: "I do not wish to hear anything 
more of the Old Testament and the law, the religion of the Sermon 
on the Mount is newer and good enough for me." Such men do not 



THE SUPREME PURPOSE. 467 

know whereof they speak; Christ does not lower the standard of 
conduct but exalts it. The thoughtful moralist, who said, "May 
God deliver me in the Day of Judgment from the Sermon on the 
Mount/^ had a much better conception of the breadth and depth of 
its spiritual meaning. Christ demands a righteousness which was 
not thought of under the old dispensation; he tells us plainly that 
he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. In the Old Testa- 
ment a moral law had been outlined, but Christ comes and fills in 
the picture. Under the Mosaic dispensation, attention had been 
given wholly to the exterior of the house, but the Great Architect 
of the Universe looks to the interior; sweeps away even the cob- 
webs of sinful thought; ceils up the bare and unsightly rafters; 
adorns the walls with beautiful tints of character; hangs thereon 
the Christian graces of friendship, love, and truth; while he places 
in the centre a new heart reflecting the light of God^s love, admon- 
ishing us to allow its rays to penetrate the innermost chambers of 
the soul. This righteousness is something more than mere exter- 
nal forms or a fruitless profession. Hear the warning words of 
our Saviour, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness 
shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
in no wise enter the kingdom of God.'^ 

Seeking the kingdom of God with its inherent righteousness will 
require close attention on our part. The Greek word translated 
"Seek," includes the thought of seeking earnestly, intensely, again 
and again, with eagerness, anxiety, and solicitude. As the wrestler 
or racer in the Grecian games put forth his most earnest efforts 
we are told to strive to enter in at the strait gate, "For strait 
is the gate and narrow is the way." We do not need to seek the 
road to the lost world, for by nature we travel in that direction. 
Men, who are floating with the tide, have no conception of the 
power with which it is bearing them onward. We must struggle 
against all the forces that make for unrighteousness. 

II 

Our text commands us to enthrone the kingdom of God in our 
lives, to give it the "First" place. 

How may we give the kingdom of God a place above every other 



468 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

pursuit and object of desire? If we are not citizens of that king- 
dom, we can only become such by giving an immediate response 
to its demands. While the thought before us is primarily of the 
principle, the supreme motive which is to continually dominate the 
lives of citizens of the heavenly kingdom, we must also look to that 
time when every soul is challenged to forsake a life of worldliness 
and sin; to permit the supreme purpose of life to be implanted 
within the heart. The rich young ruler was not willing to seek 
eternal life with all his heart, to give the first place to its acquisi- 
tion. Felix is convicted of sin, but says, "Go thy way for this 
time, when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee.*^ 
A boy starts out to secure a situation, but on the way he stops to 
see a monkey dance, to hear a street band play, to see a dog fight, 
and finally reaches the place half an hour too late. The care of 
the soul must have precedence both in the beginning, and through- 
out the Christian life; other matters must be made secondary to 
our spiritual welfare. Most men in this Christian land want some- 
thing of religion in their lives, but they are not willing to give it 
the first place; it must be subordinated to a secondary position 
whenever it interferes with certain of their aims and pursuits; 
while desiring its advantages they are unwilling to assume its obli- 
gations and self-denials. We "seek the kingdom of G-od first,'' 
when we give to it a more zealous devotion than we attach to the 
pursuit of other objects. The man who goes into his closet and 
shuts the door, determined never to come out again, never to look 
on another human face, until he can realize that his sins are for- 
given, or who like Jacob wrestles all night with God in prayer 
saying, "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me;" or the man 
who says, "I am not my own, I am bought with a price, therefore 
all that I am, and all that I can do, is subject to the will of my 
Master.'' These exalt immeasurably the kingdom of God above all 
temporal aims and possessions. 

But some one may ask: "How is it possible amid the manifold 
duties that devolve upon us and the diverse motives that actuate 
us in life to give the first place, at all times, to this Supreme Pur- 
pose f The Great Apostle admonishes us, "Whether ye eat or 



THE SUPEEME PUEPOSE. 469 

drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Thus a 
religious spirit is to enter into the most common things of life; it 
is possible to glorify God in these as well as in acts that are known 
as distinctively religions. EeKgion is not a robe for Sunday, but 
too fine for common wear; not an idler to be jostled aside in the 
busy thoroughfare of life as if it had no right there; not a needful, 
but disagreeable medicine to be taken now and then for the bene- 
fit of the soul ; not a tax to be paid periodically, but dispensed with 
at other times, but a ceaseless tribute of regard to him who is the 
object of our worship. When Paul says : "Do all to the glory of 
God,'^ he expresses what another has beautifully said: "Spiritual- 
ity of mind is appropriate to every act of our lives and should be 
present lik-e the act of breathing, the circulation of the blood, or 
the silent growth of our stature." Service in the kingdom of God 
is the single vocation which can be carried on simultaneously with 
all other callings in life. A man cannot successfully practice law 
and medicine at the same time, nor in fact follow any two voca- 
tions that require application and skill; but religion is the com- 
mon all-embracing profession, which can be successfully practised 
in any honorable sphere of life; in place of being a hindrance, it 
will be a positive help; "Godliness is profitable unto all things." 

In order to give God the "Firet" place in our lives, it is not 
necessary that religion should be always a distinct and conscious 
object of thought; this is manifestly impossible; but it is possible 
to be always consciously or unconsciously controlled by spiritual 
motives, as we are by certain laws of nature, for instance the law 
of gravitation. As the iceberg is borne southward by the polar 
currents, it is gradually melted by the action of a warm current 
flowing in an opposite direction; in the truly regenerate life, there 
is a Godward current which moves on ceaselessly, counteracting the 
chilling influences of sin. Many lives are constantly influenced by 
latent motives. The boy who deeply loves his parents desires 
above all things to please them, and his life is continually shaped 
by this desire; this filial affection is so much a part of his being 
that it moulds his home conduct without any conscious thought of 
the motive that controls him. A man determines to get a home for 



470 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Ms little family; every energy seems bent in this direction, but the 
thought of obtaining that home is not always present to his mind; 
it has become so much a part of himself that he "unconsciously prac- 
tises economy a:Qd works harder than he would with no such object 
before him. When we can thus be controlled by such motives, shall 
we find any difficulty in seeing that, when our lives are permeated 
with the Supreme Purpose of "Seeking first the kingdom of God,^^ 
we shall be continually striving to honor and glorify him. "This 
principle of ever setting before us, even in what may seem to be 
small temporal matters, the one grand spiritual object will lead 
onward and upward, until that which is secondary and subordi- 
nate will be absorbed into that which is spiritual.'^ God and not 
self must be the centre around which our lives revolve. The 
Ptolemaic S3^stem failed to map out the orbits of the heavenly 
bodies, because it started with a wrong hypothesis, with the earth 
as the centre of the universe; it remained for Copernicus to 
demonstrate that the sun is the centre. Our lives are out of gear 
as long as we make our own little self the centre of conduct; but as 
God is enthroned in the heart, and all our thoughts and motives 
are caused to revolve around his will, the orbit of life runs paral- 
lel with divine statutes, and we delight in the lav/ of the Lord. 
Then let us give God the First place in our lives, taking care that 
all our thoughts and deeds shall revolve about him as do the plan- 
ets about the sun; we have many motives and objects of desire, but 
these must be in harmony with his will. Citizenship in the heaven- 
ly kingdom does not allow of any compromise with the first com- 
mandment, "Tliou shalt have no other gods before me." Other 
objects of love we may have, but not before God; if we do, we are 
idolators. He who, in the midst of all the light of divine truth 
that is ours to-day, puts the world first, is like unto a man gather- 
ing pebbles on the shore while pearls lie unnoticed at his feet. 
Money, learning, power and position, in their appropriate place, 
are proper objects of ambition, but their acquisition must be subor- 
dinated to "Seeking first the kingdom of God." 



THE SUPREME PURPOSE. 471 

III 

Our lives will be a failure unless tliey are controlled by the 

SUPREME PURPOSE, 

"Dare not to live/' said a gi-eat man, "without some clear inten- 
tion toward which your living shall be bent/' What does that life 
amount to that is not dominated by some high and noble purpose ? 
A life without a purpose is like a barrel without hoops, it very 
easily goes to pieces. A Chinaman stood by the wayside hacking a 
log, never striking twice in the same place. A traveler coming 
along and seeing the uncertain, hacking away, said, "Well, John, 
what are you making?" "Oh, don't know," said John., "Maybe 
a god, ma3'be a bedstead." How many men so lack a definite pur- 
pose in life, that all their efforts prove to be nothing more than an 
uncertain hacking away. Do not add act to act and day to day, in 
perfect thoughtlessness, never asking yourself whither the grow- 
ing line is leading. The true life revolves around a clearly defined 
and exalted purpose. This purpose is to life what a rudder is 
to the ship; however strong the breeze of fortune that swells the 
sails, or abundant the talents and energies that throb within, life's 
voyage will be a failure, and the final haven will not be reached 
without the rudder of purpose. Our lives are like a loom; God 
gives us the warp of circumstances and talent, but unless the shut- 
tle of daily duty flies back and forth interweaving the thread of an 
exalted purpose, no garment of righteousness will be produced. 

IV 

When imbued with this supreme purpose^ we can become im- 
pervious to the sorrows, trials, anxieties, and disappointments of 
life. 

The needless little anxieties and worries of life can only be 
avoided as we become engrossed Vv'ith the determination to please 
God at all times, trusting the promise that, if we give our first 
attention to "the kingdom of God and his righteousness," "all 
things shall be added unto us." The story of the origin of Chal- 
mer's great sermon, "The Expulsive Power of the New Affection" 
is familiar. Eiding in a stage coach, he remonstrated with the 
driver for suddenly striking the horse without any apparent rea- 



472 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

son ; the man replied : "He shied at yonder black stump a few days 
ago, and nearly caused an accident, now I give him a smart cut 
with the whip, while some distance from the stump, and he is so 
much taken up with the effects of this that he does not find time 
to look at the stump/' "I have it,'' said Chalmers to himself. 
^^The soul that is filled with love for Jesus and thoughts of serv- 
ing him does not find time to stop and look at the many things 
in life that are ordinarily a source of temptation, worry, and dis- 
appointment; it has no room for these, being filled with something 
so much better." 



THOMAS MILES SHAXAFELT was born at Brinkerton, Clarion county, 
Penn., and graduated at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., in 1861. He 
served during the civil war as a private soldier. At the close of his mili- 
tary service he completed his course of study in theology, and was enrolled 
among the first alumni of Crozer Theological Seminary. Entering the Bap- 
tist ministry, he was ordained at Muncy, Pa. He is the youngest of three 
brothers, all of whom have had an honored record as able and successful 
ministers of the gospel. His brothers are Eevs. J. R. Shanafelt and A. F. 
Shanafelt. In 1887 he removed to Michigan, where for twenty-one years 
he served as pastor on four or five important fields. During this period he 
held important positions in. his denomination, having been Secretary and 
Treasurer of the Michigan Baptist Education Society, member of the Board 
of Trustees of Kalamazoo College, and sensed fourteen years as Secretary 
of the Michigan Baptist State Convention. In 1884, at the national em- 
campment held in Minneapolis, Minn., he was elected Chaplain-in-Chief of 
the Grand Army of the Republic. He is now Assistant Inspector-General 
of the national organization, and is Past Department Chaplain of the De- 
partment of South Dakota. Having been repeatedly urged to take charge 
of missionary work in one of the Northwestern States or Territories, in 
April, 1888, he accepted from the American Baptist Home Mission Society 
an appointment as State Superintendent of missions for South Dakota. In 
1889 Xorth Dakota was added to his district. From the beginning of his 
relationship to this work he has been Secretary of the South Dakota Bap- 
tist Convention. During the past thirteen yeaiB of seiwice seventy-five new 
Baptist churches have been organized and seventy houses of worship and 
twenty-five parsonages have been built or secured by purchase. Under his 
careful and aggressive leadership the denomination has grown rapidly in 
strength and influence, and maintains a leading position among the other 
denominations in his district. In addition to his services rendered as pastor 
and superintendent of missions. Dr. Shanafelt has given considerable atten- 
tion to literary work. In 1881 he compiled biographical sketches of nearly 
four hundred Baptist ministers in Michigan. He is author of "'•The Statisti- 
cal Baptist History of Michigan," '"Tlie Baptist History of South Dakota," 
and several smaller denominational and historical works. Being deeply in- 
terested in historical research, he has published numerous historical articles 
in denominational and secular newspapers and magazines. He is Vice- 
President and a member of the Executive Board of the South Dakota His- 
torical Society. For several years he has been the South Dakota represen- 
tative on the Board of Managers of the International Baptist Young Peo- 
ple's Union of America. He is Vice-President of the American Baptist His- 
torical Society. He is also President of the Board of Commissioners of the 
South Dakota Soldiers' Home, located at Hot Springs. Being thus actively 
identified with the religious and secular interests of the State, he has been 
able to exert a helpful influence, and he is recognized as a wise leader and 
a safe counsellor. He has had much to do in helping to lay the foundations 
of a new State. As a citizen he is widely known, and is everywhere re- 
spected for what he is and for what he has done. 
(473) 




TM®iAi i. lyM^FlLT. i. i. 



THE BURDE^TED SOUL DIRECTED. 475 

XXXIX 
THE BI7EDEXED SOUL DIEECTED 



By Thomas Miles Shanatelt, D. J)., 
South. Dakota 

"Caet thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: 
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

—Psalm 55 : 22. 

WHEX any one is in trouble his best counsellor is the Bible. 
When he opens it for coimsel and belp^ next to the instnic- 
tive and comforting words of Christ, he will instinctively turn to 
the psalms of David. They are the unrestrained and hearty decla- 
rations of his experience, which corresponds, in some of its varied 
phases, to the experience of nearly every human being. 

He rejoiced and was cast down. He prospered and was ia ad- 
versity. He enjoyed the favor of God, and was at times under the 
shadow of his displeasure. In. each of these conditions he has 
left ns a record of his feelings, so natural, and so true to our own, 
that we seem to be allied to him in the fellowship of joy and sirffer- 
ing. We realize that his experience has been like ours, and that 
his words express onr own grateful emotions and earnest desires. 

It seems strange that a king like David, raised to the throne 
nnder circnmstances snch as made him. ruler over Israel, shonld 
find so many occasions for trouble and sorrow, but so it was. 
Exalted rank does not diminish, bnt rather increases care. The 
thorn is concealed under the beantifnl and fragrant rose. Evil is 
mixed with all the good that we enjoy. 

•'TTneasy rests the head that wears a crown." David fonnd it so, 
and doubtless there were times when he would have found it a 
relief to leave his throne and exchange his crown for quiet content- 
menf, and a hnmble home like that of his childhood. He lamented 
the factions that existed, and the discord that prevailed, among the 



476 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tribes of Israel. He deplored the desertion of professed friends. 
He felt most keenly the rebellion of his own son, Absalom. But 
when his confidence in man was shaken, and every human support 
failed him, he knew where he could look for help. The counsel 
that he gave to others he followed himself. He put his trust in 
God, and when he did this he did not fear what man could da 
unto him. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain 
thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.^' 

The language of the text is specially applicable to two classes of 
persons — ^to all who sincerely love and serve God, and to those 
who are concerned for the salvation of their souls. Consider first — 

I. THE BURDEIsTS 

1. God's people have hurdens to hear as well as the ungodly. 

Affliction of some kind is the common lot of all mankind. It 
does not come by chance, but it is wisely permitted, for a purpose 
that we cannot always see, but which we ought to believe is intend- 
ed for our good. But while every soul is burdened, in rightly bear- 
ing these burdens there is enduring peace for the believer. He 
may be happy amid suffering. There is nothing that brings the 
soul of man into such blessedness as an abiding trust in God. He 
may suffer hardships, but he is better able to endure them, when he 
knows that he has the help of one who has sympathy for his infirm- 
ities. But the best of men are human, and they have their times of 
trial. Though it is the privilege of all Christians "to wait on the 
Lord and renew their strength," yet from a variety of causes they 
are often burdened and their hearts are troubled. 

The Psalmist enjoyed much of the favor of God, and 3^et there 
were times when he was greatly depressed in spirit. He had many 
things to cause anxiety. Even when most faithful in serving God, 
he had so many trials and perplexities that he had to reprove him- 
self for giving way to them; and so we hear him inquiring: 
"Why art thou cast down, my soul ? and why art thou disquieted 
within me ?" While in this distress he could recall so many tokens 
of good that he says: "I will remember thee from the land of 
Jordan, and of the Hermonites, and from the hill Mizar." He did 
not want to go mourning all the day because of the oppression of 



THE BURDENED SOUL DIRECTED. 477 

his enemies. For his sorrow he knew that there was a remedy, 
and it is thus that he speaks to his troubled soul : "The Lord will 
command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his 
song shall be with me." He had occasion to lament the violence 
and strife that prevailed in the city, and that many persons were 
going about on the walks thereof, stirring up dissensions and caus- 
ing divisions in Israel, but concerning himself he said: "As for 
me I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me." His heart 
is heavy, but he says to his heart: "Cast thy burden upon the 
Lord, and he shall sustain thee." 

Coming down from the time of David to the days of the apos- 
tles and the early Christians, we find a similar experience. They 
were examples of piety, and models of fidelit}^, but they bore bur- 
dens and endured trials almost without number. They shared in 
the common experience of all who are faithful. Concerning their 
hardships and sufferings the Apostle Paul declared: "We who are 
in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." This is the state- 
ment of a general tru.th, for all believers are burdened. While 
some of the sorrows of life are self-procured, and result from our 
own acts of folly and indiscretion, yet there are many sorrowful 
experiences that have to be endured by the people of God for which 
they are not responsible, or which are but indirectly induced by 
themselves. But whatever our burdens are, or from whatever 
source they come, we are exhorted to "cast all our care upon God, 
who careth for us." 

2. Some of the heaviest burdens and sorest trials of life have 
their origin in domestic troiibles, and in the treachery and deser- 
tion of supposed friends. 

The experience of David is often repeated. Many godly par- 
ents find that disobedient and ungrateful children are a burden 
that lies heavy on their hearts. The king of Israel had to endure 
more than the cares of state. He had more to distress him than 
the factions and discord that prevailed among the people. There 
was discord in his family. His wife, Michal, mocked him while 
he was offering sacrifices and thanksgiving to God. But that 
which grieved him most of all was the rebellious conduct of Absa- 



478 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

loin. The burden that he carried seemed to be great in propor- 
tion to the love that he cherished for his wayward and ungrateful 
eon. When the sad news of the untimely death of Absalom reached 
his homC;, the king seemed to forget how much was involved in the 
issue of the battle. Going into his chamber he wept^, and poured 
out the intensity of his sorrow in the strongest declarations of 
grief at so sudden and disgraceful an end. "0 Absalom, my son, 
would to God I had died for thee." The victory of that day was 
turned into sorrow and mourning. The anguish of David as a 
father was greater than his rejoicing as king, when the enemies 
of Israel were defeated and slain. 

There is often some alloy of sorrow to disturb the enjoyment 
of domestic life. Some unhappy temper may become a source 
of discord. Some rebellious child or unfaithful friend may make 
us weary of life. A mocking Ishmael, overbearing in disposition, 
and impatient of restraint, was a cause of division in the home 
of Abraham. A profane Esau, estranged from home and kin- 
dred, was an occasion of grief in the family of Isaac. The two sons 
of Eli, who made themselves vile, brought their aged father to 
a sudden and sorrowful death. The rebellious Absalom, plotting 
treason against the king, was the sorest burden on the heart of 
David. It is thus that even the good have to suffer the pangs of 
sorrow, and are made to realize 

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child." 

How little do many children know or care concerning the bur- 
dens that are crushing the hearts of their parents, when their con- 
duct becomes a reproach and a shame. How little do parents 
know, amid their anxiety and effort, for what end they are rearing 
their children, whether to honor or dishonor, to be their comfort 
and joy in old age, or to bring down their gray hairs with sorrow 
to the grave. 

Another source of much unhappiness is a churlish disposition, a 
lack of mutual forbearance in the home circle. Many a husband 
and wife have been as unlike in temperament, and as unequally 



THE BUKDEKED SOUL DIRECTED. 479 

yoked together as J^abal and Abigail, in the days of Saiil. Where 
there ought to be love and kindness there are too often coldness 
and restraint. There is no donbt a vast amount of untold suffer- 
ing in the world, that is borne in silence until it shall be made 
known at the judgment. It will then be revealed what many a 
patient, suffering wife has endured, of sorrow and distress, because 
of the selfishness and coldness of a husband destitute of tender- 
ness and sympathy. 

But all husbands are not brutal and all wives are not angelic. 
There have been many instances where good men have been ruined 
in business by vain and extravagant wives, or driven into evil doing 
by fretfulness and fault finding at home. The atmosphere of 
home is too frequently filled with clouds, when there ought, by 
mutual effort, to be only sunshine and happiness. As a natural 
result many are driven elsewhere for society, when they yield to 
temptation and endeavor to drown unpleasant memories in intoxi- 
cating drinks. As they go on, from bad to worse, business is 
neglected, all affection and sympathy are gone, and the home cir- 
cle is forsaken for the haunts of evil. There is nothing under 
heaven more desirable and beautiful than a happy Christian home, 
and the unhappiness and wretchedness of many families could be 
avoided if there were love in the home, mutual forbearance, and 
trusting in God for help in their journey through life together. 

It has been intimated also, and illustrated in the experience of 
David, that man}^ of the sorrows and burdens of life owe their 
origin to the treachery and desertion of professed friends. We do 
not expect any sympathy or help from those who acknowledge 
that they are our enemies. If they attempt to injure us, or speak 
evil concerning us, we are not surprised ; and since their opposition 
is expected, we are not so sorely grieved. An open foe is entitled 
to some respect, but an enemy, under the guise of friendship, may 
justly be despised. Some are smooth tongued and full of flattery, 
but they will stab you to the heart if they can find an opportunity 
to do it secretly. The Psalmist had to deal with many of this 
class. This is his description of them : "The words of his mouth 



480 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words 
were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords/^ 

David was prepared to meet the opposition of his enemies, for 
he knew where to find them, biit when professed friends proved 
false to him his heart was burdened. The opposition of Ahitbo- 
phel was peculiarly distressing to him. It was all the more painful 
because it was unexpected. So far from being an avowed enemy 
who now took occasion to oppose him, he had been David's friend 
and counsellor, and had been treated b}^ him as an equal, and they 
h^d often gone together to the tabernacle to offer sacrifice, and join 
in religious worship. And yet this man, after many years of the 
warmest friendship, turned against David, gave encouragement to 
the rebellious Absalom, and assisted him to plot treason against the 
king. It was this desertion of supposed friends that grieved him 
so sorely, and he felt it far more keenly than the open hostility of 
his foes. 

It is a common occurrence that those who love and serve the 
Lord are burdened, and suffer injury from sources where they look 
for help. But none of them are ever so shamefully treated as was 
their Master when he dwelt among men, and he has declared that 
"the disciple is not greater than his Lord." He was betrayed by 
one whom he had honored as a companion and friend. He as- 
sured his followers that in this world they must expect tribulation. 
"If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." These 
things which are inseparable from our earthly environment, we 
do not have to bear alone. God is our helper. He "giveth grace 
to the humble." The Apostle Peter, repeating the sentiment of 
David, exhorts us to "cast all our care upon God, for he careth 
for us." 

3. The earnest Christian is hurdened tvith the cares and trials 
of life. 

They are of every kind, and are continually appearing. If we 
have quelled the rising fear of to-day, some new occasion for 
anxiety will appear to-morrow. Thus every day has its burden and 
"every heart knoweth its own bitterness." 

Man ought to feel that he has something to live for that is bet- 



THE BURDENED SOUL DIRECTED. 481 

ter than the ■ancertain possessions of earth. While men are in the 
world, however, they have to meet its responsibilities. So long as 
they have to do with the present life their relation to things aronnd 
them is sreh as to fill them with anxious care. 

Many a faithfnl Christian, anxious to deal honorably with all 
men, finds his business affairs complicated. Events are occurring 
around him which seriously concern him, but over which he has 
no control. Some of those with whom he has had business rela- 
tions fail to meet their obligations to him, and he becomes finan- 
cially embarrassed. While he is struggling against misfortune, 
there are those, who, without sufficient reason, condemn his acts, 
and speak evil of the cause that he loves, and, under many difficul- 
ties, is trying to serve. These things are burdens for which there is 
no relief except as they are cast upon the Lord. 

Many a laboring inan, without means of support, except what 
he can earn by daily toil, is concerned to know how to supply the 
wants of his family. Amid his anxiety business depressions come, 
employment ceases, or health fails, or some of his family sicken 
and die. Expenses increase and debts are incurred and he does 
not know how to meet them. In bis distress he is almost tempted 
to think that his heavenly Father has forsaken him. This is his 
extremity. It is also God's opportunity^ and he will find relief if 
he will heed the exhortation, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord." 

Many a widow, left alone with her dependent children, has had 
occasion to mourn the loss of the strong arm on which she once 
leaned for support, the circle of friends that once surrounded her, 
and the comfortable home which she once called her own. All 
these are gone. The earthly prospects, once bright, are now 
dimmed, and her heart is burdened with care. But there is one 
above all others who well deserves the name of friend. He has 
promised to be "the Grod of the widow and of the fatherless,'' and 
she can safely and confidently cast her burden upon the Lord. 

4. TJie hearts of all who truly love God are burdened because 
of the indifference and neglect of those who profess to be Chris- 
tians. 

It is as natural for a real Christian to love the church of Christ 



482 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

as it is for one to love his home. It is as natural for a truly re- 
generated soul to desire to be in the church as it is for one to want 
a home. Love to the brotherhood of Christians, and a desire to 
be in fellowship with them, is one of the strongest evidences of 
discipleship. If we really love our brethren we will be interested 
in everything that concerns their welfare. We will desire to see 
them making progress in knowledge, and holiness and godly liv- 
ing, and we will lament with them when ^'the ways of Zion do 
mourn." The tide of worldliness too often sweeps over the church 
and paralyzes its power. Many who profess better things, by word 
and deed bring reproach on the cause they ought to serve. Because 
so many are indifferent and negligent, faithful workers have to do 
the work that belongs to others. Such burdens are hard to bear, 
and it is only when we are able to cast them on the Lord that we 
are sustained and strengthened. 

We have thus far considered the fact that those who love and 
serve God have cares and trials, as well as the ungodly, and v/e 
have seen what some of these burdens are. We come now to in- 
quire 

II. WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THEM ? 

The answer to this inquiry is found in the text: "Cast thy bur- 
den upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer 
the righteous to be moved." We need not carry all of our load 
ourselves when we have the offer of unfailing help. We ought to 
cast our burdens on the Lord in prayer. Eliphaz said to Job in 
his affliction: "I would look unto God, and unto him would I 
commit my cause." That was good advice. If Job had followed 
it sooner than he did, and had not spent so much time lamenting 
his condition, he would have been saved from much of his suffer- 
ing. It is a good thing to lay all of our wants before God. Many 
Christians lose much enjoyment and peace because they fail to do 
this. They seem to thinlv that a general request is sufficient, and 
that only their greatest sorrows and their sorest trials should be 
mentioned in their supplications. 

There are many Christian business men who think that it is 
going too much into details to carry their business troubles and 



THE BUEDEXED SOUL DIRECTED. 483 

perplexities to God in their daily prayer. Wliy should tliey not 
do this^ when he is never weary with their requests, and is so will- 
ing to grant them? He who looks after details in his goyernnient 
of the world, and carefully watches little things in his providential 
care, so that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without his no- 
tice, is not unmindful of the smallest thing that affects the happi- 
ness of any of his creatures. It is generally the little, every-day 
troubles and perplexities that make up the aggTegate of the bur- 
dens of life. All of these are to be taken to him who is able to 
help in ever}" time of need. 

In describing the condition of the righteous David said : ''Com- 
mit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in him, and he shall give 
thee the desires of thy heart."' ^Ve know that there is one who 
was tempted and tried, as we are. and has s^inpathy for our in- 
firmities. Let us go to him for help. There is relief for our sor- 
row, there is a refuge from our disti'ess. but we do not go where it 
may be found. ParJ cautioned the Phillippians to '*T)e careful for 
nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with 
thanksgiving, let your requests be made Iniown imto God.'" If we 
do this, then ^'the peace of God which passeth understanding shall 
keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.-'^ 

"When we cast our burdens upon the Lord in prayer, we must 
remember that heartless requests are never answered. "AVithout 
faith it is impossible to please God.*" TThen our Lord was on the 
earth there was a man who was in trouble, and he desired relief. 
He had a son who was possessed by an evil spirit. He did what 
most of us do when we are in distress. TTe go first to human 
means for help, until we find that '^'vain is the help of man.*' This 
man took his son to the disciples, but they could do nothing for 
him. Then he did what he ought to have done at first, he brought 
him to Jesus. But he did not come to him in the right spirit, for 
he said : 'Tf thou canst do an}i:hing. have compassion on us. and 
help us.'' But even this conditional request was granted. ''Jesus 
said unto him: If thou canst believe, all things are possible to 
him that believeth." The rebuked supplicant immediately ban- 
ished his doubts. '^^And straightwav the father of the child cried 



484 THE AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

out, and said with tears : Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief/' 
Too often we come to God with our burdens in a similar man- 
ner. Our faith is so weak that it dishonors him, and, for our good, 
he rebukes our unbelief. Why should we brood over our cares, and 
complain of our sufferings, as though we were compelled to bear 
them alone? "Behold the fowls of the air; they toil not, neither 
do they spin, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 
much better than they ? and will he not also care for you, 0, ye of 
little faith ?^^ 

Can you hear him speak thus and yet hesitate to cast all your 
care upon him, when you know that he careth for you ? Do you be- 
lieve that what Christ declared concerning his disciples is true? 
"I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish ; neither 
shall any man be able to pluck them out of my hands.^' Does the 
-question of Paul imply any doubt concerning the supply of our 
daily wants, when he says: "If God spared not his own son, but 
delivered him up for us all, shall he not with him freely give us all 
things T^ Surely it must be true, what the prophet declared : "Be- 
cause he trusteth in thee, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
whose mind is stayed on thee." In the light of these strong prom- 
ises and assurances we are able now to see how much good we may 
derive from heeding the exhortation of the text: "Cast thy bur- 
den upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suf- 
fer the righteous to be moved." 

Let every one that is conscious of sin and guilt, and desires the 
salvation of his soul, cast his burden on the Lord. Are any of you 
weary of sin, and heavy laden because of its sorrows? Have you 
carried its burden until it seems too heavy to be borne ? Then you 
are in a condition to look to him who is able to remove it, and give 
you rest. Go and tell him all your complaint. Trust in his power 
to save you, and he will speak peace to your soul. 

"Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish, 
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." 



EDWAPJD BRAISLIX was born in Burlington county, N". J., November 
-20, 184:6. His father, who was a farmer, was a Roman Catholic; his mother 
a Friend. From this union five out of six children became Baptists, solely 
from independent study of the Scriptures. An elder sister, Priscilla H. 
Braislin, was for twenty-two years teacher and professor of mathematics in 
Yassar College, the first woman to occupy such a professorship in America. 
Gibbs Braislin, a younger brother, has been for tweh'e years pastor of the 
First Baptist Church of Rutland, Vt., while the remaining sisters, Alice G. 
Braislin and ]SIary Braislin Cooke, have been for ten years principals of the 
Priscilla Braislin School for Girls, at Bordentown, N. J. Thus from the 
Catholic-Quaker farmhouse grew up a useful generation of Baptist chil- 
dren. Edward left his fathers farm at seventeen years of age for a bank 
clerkship in Philadelphia. Outside of banking hours he pursued for five 
years the studies usually included in college courses. In 1869 he was bap- 
tized into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church of Philadelj)hia by the 
pa:stor, Rev. George Dana Boardman, D. D., to whose unfailing friendship 
he owes much of inspiration and guidance in subsequent years. He gradu- 
ated from Crozer Theological Seminary at Upland, Pa., in 1873; took a 
post-graduate course of one year in that institution, and was ordained pas- 
tor of the Baptist Church at Mount Holly, N. J., five miles from the old 
homestead. His first baptism was that of his mother, who wa^ a faithful 
attendant upon his ministry while she lived. In 1881 he became pastor of 
the First Baptist Church of Newton, Mass., where for four years the pro- 
fessors and students of Newton Theological Institution were attendants 
upon his ministry. In 1886 he was called to the pastorate of the Washing- 
ton-Avenue Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he remained seven 
and a half years, until his health gave way and he was obliged to rest, and 
finally, his health still broken, he was forced to seek the climate of Colo- 
rado, where four years ago he assumed the pastorate of the First Baptist 
Church of Colorado Springs. This pastorate is proving in many respects 
the most pleasant and successful of his ministry*. With physical strength 
restored, a united and agressive church, and a strategic Baptist position in 
a rapidly-growing Commonwealth, he has unrivalled opportunity witb 
God's blessing for great usefulness to Christ and the Baptist cause. Dr. 
Braislin has travelled in Europe and Asia, crossing the ocean ten times. 
Extended opportunity for study in Bible lands has added much to his power 
as a preacher. Dr. Braislin married in 1893 Miss Margaret Maude Kenyon, 
of Brooklyn, N. Y. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Rich- 
mond College, Yirginia, in 1886. 
(485) 



THE WITXESSI^x^G REDEEMER. 487 



XL 
THE WITNESSI^^G REDEEMER 



By Edwaed BR.1ISLIN, D. D., 
Colorado 

"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness." — Rev. 1 : 5. 

THE uninspired editors of the sacred manuscript have en- 
titled this book "The Revelation of St. John the Divine/^ 
but the apostle, who loved not to write his own name, was never 
more willing to be obscure than when on Patmos he saw Jesus 
glorified. To him the book is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ 
which God gave unto him." And, whether or not the visions 
which have baffled interpreters were m3'sterious to the exiled scribe, 
certain it is that to Jesus of isTazareth they were plain and prac- 
tical. He held such relation to the Truth and to Time that coming 
events lay clear as written history Avithin his vision. The same 
person whose features had grown rigid on the cross is able now to 
command angel and elder to unfold to human vision the destiny 
of mankind, a destiny the explanation of which is his glorifica- 
tion. The Revelation covers no less a period of time than from the 
apostolic age to the final judgment; and he who had borne witness 
to the truth in his earthly ministry and atoning sufiering is now 
to bear witness to the struggles and vicissitudes of his people 
through the stormy ages covered by his prophecy. He is the seer, 
foretelling the future, but infinitely more than that; he is to be in 
that future a living observer of its detailed unfolding. "Jesus 
Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the 
dead and the prince of the kings of the earth," watching with pa- 
tient fidelity and more than maternal solicitude the trials and 
dangers, the heroism and endurance of his pilgrim church. He 



488 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

has been with her from generation to generation. He has been her 
guardian and inspiration. Her life would have been impossible 
but for his continued presence. 

Any vivid apprehension of the blessed truth of onr Lord's literal 
presence in the world and among his churches is awe-inspiring, 
but the view of that presence to which the text directs ns should, 
perhaps, more than an}' other, summon lis to vigilance and to 
worship. The people of God have a witnessing Eedeemer. 

By this word "witness" I understand that he who is God's wit- 
ness to man is also history's vritness to God; that he is the close 
and accurate observer, whose observation is with the purpose, soon- 
er or later, of bearing testimony. 

In our infancy we were taught that the eye of God was upon 
ns; an idea which may be either heathen or Christian, according 
to onr conception of what God is like. Is he an abstraction, de- 
fined by indefinable attributes? Then very vagae is our concep- 
tion of what his gaze may be. Is he a Moloch whose care for man 
is in his pleasure in human pain? Then his watchfulness is a 
thought of horror. Is he a just and holy person dwelling in light 
which no man can approach unto, and forever separated from the 
creature whose sins defiled him? Then to know that I cannot es- 
cape those eyes is to add increasingly to my torment. But is he a 
being vrhose absolute holiness does not prevent his condescension, 
S3'mpathy and help? Ah, then, life is made new for me, and I 
can understand how in the final judgment there will be no fiaws 
in testimony — no man condemned without a witness. 

A witnessing Redeemer, both in his witnessing of God to men 
and of men to God, must be intensely alive to the affairs and needs 
of men. If he be the observer of the facts of the worlds each day — 
and these in the aggregate make the fulfilling of Apocalyptic pro- 
phesy — then the Redeemer is the most active man and the most 
profoundly interested watcher of all time. And remembering that 
he is the same yesterday and to-day and forever, his compassion is 
as measureless as when he first came to Bethlehem, or fed the fam- 
ishing five thousand. The churches may turn indifferently from 



JHE WITXESSING KEDEEilEE. 489 

the never-ending wail of the non<-hiLrch-going masses, but he never 
does: the chnrches may lose interest in missions, and grow languid 
in a benevolence at least rarely sanctified by sacrifice: bnt the 
Christ who emptied his wealth upon the world that the poor might 
bec-ome rich, while he losses none of his ancient capacity for indig- 
nation toward hypocrite and Pharisee, abates not a jot his love for 
the poor and the ontcast. The places to which the glad tidings are 
yet to go attract him. He warms toward the heroic few, who, tak- 
ing their lives in their hands, still go into "the regions beyond." 
It is said that one day while the freedom of Italy was as yet tmse- 
cured. Garibaldi was observed intently gazing on a roeky and al- 
most inaccessible eminence which overlooked the enemies" fortifi- 
c-ations. His soldiers approached him. Said one of them: ''Gen- 
eral, what is yonr wishP* "1 want a gun on yonder height.'"' The 
heroic men, fired by the gaze of their commander, performed the 
Herculean task : and as he watched them toiling up the rocky steep, 
his great heart stirred and his eyes filled, and he exclaimed : '"'With 
ten thousand such men, I conld c-onqner the world.*' To-day I see 
the face of a greater than Garibaldi intently turned toward heights 
to which a more devoted church might long ago have climbed — 
heights of love, faith, character: heights of missionary and moral 
vantage. I behold hiTn wondering over degraded and famine- 
stricken India, for which eighteen hundred, years ago he died, the 
condition of which is the shame of the Christian world today. 
Here and there his eye kindles with the joy still set before him, 
as he sees the solitary hero who for his dear sake has ventured his 
aU among the heathen, and I hear him say: '•'With ten thousand 
such men I could conquer the world.'* 

Again, he witnesses that all things may with ac-curancy be re- 
corded. From his memory nothing is omitted. There is a Lamb's 
Book: it is a book of remembrance, in which are recorded even 
your uords and mine. In the treasury of his memory is the only 
material for the true history of the world. Xothing that earth 
has thought or done is lost in heaven. So individual history has 
e^er sunk into oblivion. There is no such thing as oblivion, save 



490 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

only for such sins as God^ for Jesus^ sake, shall "remember no more 
forever/^ No word, no act, no look is overlooked. 'No noble deed 
is unobserved, no energy of prayerful heart is wasted. There are 
those who accuse us of being visionaries, having no data for ra- 
tional conclusions. But the gleaner of facts shall come to one 
watcher who alone takes note of things as they are; and no his- 
tory or philosophy can be immortal which arises from data un- 
known to him. If his judgments are to reverse the judgments of 
the world, it will be because his knowledge is complete, not partial. 
"By his Tcnowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." 
For example, he alone has the true history of the church — the his- 
tory of a part of humanity. Church history is something more 
than the story of a certain ecclesiastical institution, which has 
happened to have power and cunning enough to preserve only what 
pleased and flattered its pride. Think you that Constantine's let- 
ters are a part of church history? Is the cross, as on his famous 
labarum, the sign by which we conquer ? Is the history of the bride 
of Christ a history of corruption, persecution, and oppression? Is 
anti-Christ, Christ? Where, then, is the history of the church? 
Who does not write for a party or creed? We can trust no manu- 
scripts, depend upon no data, for a thousand years, even in things 
conspicuous in sacred history. But where is the record of each indi- 
vidual career, whose experience of joy and sorrow made of itself a 
world? We know there is such a history, because we know there is 
and has been a church, and we know that that history is preserved, 
because, abiding the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, there is a 
witnessing Eedeemer and a Lamb's Book of Life. 

It is to the Christliness of souls that he witnesses; this is the 
golden thread running through the ages for the sake of which he 
preserves the record. The humble lives that are hid away with 
Christ, in the mass of men — these are the real heroes; and the god- 
less gre^t are the really obscure. The churches hid awa)'' in 
caverns and mountains in the dark ages, or struggling now in some 
unnoted village; these are the splendid things upon which the 
chapters of that heavenly history are to dilate. And the difficulties 



THE WITNESSING REDEEMER. 491 

for determining accurate data for church history are by no means 
small, even with all our help, in this generation of light. The 
church is even now Itid with Christ in God. Are the organizations 
called churches component parts of the Chnrch of Christ? They 
may be — but what constitutes a church? Do correct polity and 
creed, with massive mortgage, and pews whose sanctity forbids the 
leper and the Magdalene — do these constitute a church? Are the 
Christ-compassion, the Christ-sacrifice, the Christ-zeal, are these 
no longer essential elements in a Christian Church? Are there not 
churches in our fair land, over whom rests his awful frown and to 
whom go his words of wrath: "The publicans and the harlots go 
into the kingdom of G-od before you?"" What recks he, that our 
churches are the pride of our towns. He hates whatever is hollow 
or false or vain, and his loving presence is still kept exclusively for 
the lowly and contrite spirit, the fruit of which, while his spirit 
dwells within, continues to be love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen- 
tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: and that part of 
humanity, to the history of which these words are index, is the 
existing Church of God. 

Again, he witnesses in order that he may bear testimony. This 
is the great work of his mediatorial office. He bore testimony to 
the truth when he established through his teaching a code of 
Christian morals, and made that code accessible by the sacrifice of 
himself. He bore testimony to the truth when he made known to 
John the coming history of mankind. Could we but interpret the 
Apocalypse we should know with infallible certainty what yet 
remains of the events of time. He bore testimony to the truth, 
when in every age of her militant history he chronicled the deeds, 
both small and great, of his chosen church. But all this witness- 
ing has been for the purpose of a greater yet to come. He is yet 
to bear testimony in the judgment. "The hairs of your head are 
numbered * * * ^.g ^^^ ^^ more value than many sparrows. 
Whosoever shall confess me before men, Mm will I confess also 
before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny 
me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is 
in heaven.'^ 



492 THH AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

In that day, his knowledge will be the sole arbiter of each man's 
destiny, and to his knowledge men will instinctively appeal. 
"Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophe- 
sied in thy name and in thy name cast ont devils ?'' The credibil- 
ity of the witness will be questioned by none, and many a puzzled 
historian and reckless philosopher will there first hear answered 
Pilate's question, "What is truth?" Each man's hope of heaven 
hangs upon Jesus' memory. The mind that was so cruelly dark- 
ened on the cross has become the only hope of the world. 

And now note what it is to be a faithful witness. Faithfulness 
in testimony has to do with accuracy and honor. Christ alone in 
these two elements of character can be equal to the fearful demands 
of that hour. Accuracy ! Think what it is to be accurate. It is to 
stand so related to the truth as that no bias of nature, or education, 
or limited knowledge may pervert it. All men are biased, because 
all men are the creatures of something peculiar in birth and educa- 
tion. But even if this were not so, all men are limited in knowl- 
edge, and limitation is partiality. 'No truth is whole, all of the 
relations of which are not known, and a half truth is often a lie. 
The purest saint could not be free from partiality even within the 
limits of his finiteness, for worship itself is partiality. What a 
meaningless chaos would be the testimony of all mankind — by 
what conceivable means could it serve the truth? Divine justice is 
not biased in its own favor, but is justice. It remembers natural 
weaknesses, inherited depravity, erroneous or stunted education, 
opportunities. It has no penalty beyond the just limit of responsi- 
bility. Only the Christ of God, the aZ/-knowing, can with nice 
discrimination do equal justice in impartial charity, remembering 
all that is due to an enemy while apportioning awards to a friend. 
As in his memory is the only possibility of the separating and un- 
raveling of the tangled skein of a human career, so in his justice 
is the only possibility of impartiality. The divers and diverse con- 
ditions out from which individual lives have sprimg, and in which 
they have grown to what of good or evil they have attained, are 
known to him. The service and the suffering of the nameless Wal- 
densian martyr, murdered centuries ago in his native valley and 



THE WITNESSING REDEEMER. 493 

forgotten in a decade, will stand as clearly unveiled as will the in- 
stitution of inquity by whose hand he fell — ^whose shadow dark- 
ened a thousand years of Europe. 

Since then accuracy is his, how much depends upon that quality 
of faithfulness which men call vaguely honor. I have only his 
word that he will honor my faith in that great day. To what will 
he bear witness; to the sins which my neighbors and friends have 
seen and all the world would believe, or will he remember my whis- 
pered faith which though a thousand might hear only he knew 
to be sincere? Ah! my brethren, reasoning is only folly here. 
How wonderful a thing it is to have confidence in his naked word. 
If his word be not his bond, then it is less strong than it was 
of old when it had creation's cause and right to he. The same voice 
that said : "Let there be light," has also said : "He that believeth 
on me hath everlasting life.'' "Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but my words shall not pass away." The Solitary Witness can be 
relied upon; your faith will be honored because the knowledge of 
its existence is entrusted to him and not to another. 

Brethren of the churches, a devoted life is the most brilliant 
success. Not the number of baptisms, not the numerical or finan- 
cial strength of a Christian church, but the hearty loyalty which 
knows no danger in duty, will render famous minister and church 
in heaven. No honest endeavor of weary pastor; no agony under 
the burden of souls; no hope, or aspiration or cry, but the heart 
of the master comes to meet it. He is only yonder in the moun- 
tain while you toil in rowing on the lake. What though the fourth 
hour of the night be the darknest, be of good cheer, in it the Christ 
may come. 

Moreover, the church for which we live is after all and always 
safe. Trust no evidence which inclines you to doubt, as Elijah 
did, the existence and the purity of the church of God. Though 
hidden, she still is. The times like the Apocalypse may be difficult 
to interpret, but we walh, as well as read, by faith. We see through 
a glass darkly. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but there 
is coming a time when he shall be manifested, and then shall we be 
like him. The great event of coming days is to be that manifes- 



494 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tation. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the curtain shall 
be torn asunder, and the long hidden watcher stand revealed. 
That event will be God's final answer to a world whose cry, so long 
and loud, has been for demonstration. Then shall the pearls flash 
from out the depths of ocean; then shall princes come forth from 
garret and cellar; then from "nature" and her "laws" shall arise 
an army, as from bush and bracken arose that of Ehoderic Dhu. 
The humble millions, dead and living, will spring to meet him, 
and the "Lo, I come quickly" in which the bride has so long wait- 
ed, will be changed to that other cry she loved, heard at last not 
from the cross, but from the throne, "It is finished." 



SIDNEY C. DAVIS was born in Wiggaton. near Otteiy St. 'Mary. Devon- 
shire, England, October 24, 1858. He was the youngest of twelve children. 
His father died while he was an infant. The mother married again, and 
within a year, when the lad had jnst passed his sixth birthday, she died. 
Tlie step-father married again in a few months, and life became anything 
but pleasant to the lad. He was at length disposed of in an English alms- 
house, whence he was taken, however, by an uncle in a few months. At the 
age of twelve he came with a sister to Central New York, where he lived 
with a brother for two years on a farm. Thereafter he supported himself 
in the employ of farmers. A bit of wise counsel led him to take advantage 
of the country schools during the winter seasons. During these years of 
his early life in America neither the church nor the Sunday schools were 
regarded, though during his life in England attendance upon the services 
of the Church of England was one of the regular duties. At the age of six- 
teen, however, he was employed by a farmer of distinguished Christian 
character in Elbridge, N. Y. After two years young Davis went West, and 
he wais converted in a village in Michigan. A strong conviction seized him 
that the gospel which had so elevated his own conception of life, and which 
he knew from experience to be so basely conceived by many, ought to em- 
ploy his powers. He returned to Elbridge, N. Y., in August, 1877, and on 
September 1, 1877, he entered Munroe Academy at that place. Next year 
he returned to Michigan and entered Kalamazoo College, spending four 
years there. One year was spent at the Theological Seminaiy, Morgan 
Park, 111. He chiefly maintained himself by his own endeavors, first by 
manual labor, and during the last three years of his course as the regular 
"supply" for one church. He held three pastorates in Michigan, Niles being 
the last. In January, 1891, he accepted a call to the pulpit of the First 
Baptist Church of Boulder, Col., seiwing till June, 1894, when he accepted 
the call of the First Baptist Church of Phcenix, Arizona, tentatively, serv- 
ing this church only one year. On September 1, 1895, he became pastor of 
the First Baptist Church of Cheyenne, Wyoming, which he now holds with 
growing influence and power. He has served as Chaplain of the State 
Senate of Wyoming for the past two years. He is in much demand for ad- 
dresses on special occasions in his city. More young people, particularly 
young men, are said to be found in his congregations than in any other 
church in the city. His style of preaching is absolutely without notes, 
though he writes quite fully. He has a strong, clear voice and an easy, at- 
tractive presence. His churches have all fared well, both in things temporal 
and things spiritual. He married in November, 1882, Miss Belle F. Cole, 
of Byron, Mich. He has a happy and musical family of two daughters and 
two sons. Mrs. Davis is one of that devoted and withal apt and helpful 
wives for which every gospel minister should pray, and, possessing, should 
ever give thanks. 
(495) 




urn 



n LH^ini u uvii/a 



SOMETHING WORTH THE WHILE. 497 



XLI 



SOMETHING WOETH THE WHILE 
(A sermon to young people) 



By Eev. Sidney C. Davis, 
Wyoming 

"If thou seek her as silver, 

And search for her as for hio! treasures, 

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, 

And find the knowledge of God." 

— Prov. 2 : 4, 5. 

EVERY young person of normal mental gifts delights in the 
search after the hidden things ; particularly if here and there 
it throw out a suggestion, a mere hint of its whereabouts. 

The element of mystery gives zest to the quest and furnishes a 
sense of satisfaction to the mind of the one who has prosecuted the 
inquiry successfully. 

The divine method for the development of thinking beings in 
the matter of things temporal and material is the method of sug- 
gestion; the giving of mere hints to serve as spurs to human 
thought and action. How much of present scientific knowledge 
we owe to the suggestions given in the creation story would be hard 
for us to determine, but doubtless much every way. 

Apples falling from the tree to the ground: dust particles float- 
ing in the sunbeam and settling earthward; stones cast horizon- 
tally and describing a parabola, were God's hints of a great univer- 
sal fact operating through centuries by which he cried aloud to 
men in the home and the field summoning them to direct their ob- 
servation and thoughts to something worth while. Our wealth of 
knowledge to-day is due to the fact that some souls have lived 
to a purpose. 

Young people, this world of ours is the best world that you and 
I can conceive of, if our thought of it is that it was created to serve 



498 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the highest good of man and the glorification of God in the 
attainment of that highest good — a world ever and everywhere 
appealing to the thinl^ing young person on his mental and spiritual 
side; using the world now to mean this old sphere and the forms 
of life and force upon it. 

My text is concerned with that side of your life and mine which 
we speak of as the spiritual side, the last to be developed, and de- 
pendent upon the physical and mental sides of our life for both 
the kind and degree of its development. The subjects of my text 
are represented by two personal pronouns, "thou" and "her." The 
first: a thinking being. You young man, or perchance, you yoimg 
woman. The second: one of the great qualities of God^s own 
character which he offers you that you may absorb it into your own — 
Wisdom; it is named in the twentieth verse of the first chapter. 
The two of you. You and something worth your while. Su- 
premely worth your while. It is God's bid for you to become 
your best. And the method is the same as he adopts to lead you 
to the true development of the other two sides of the triangle of 
your being. 

The best physical development of your self depends upon wise 
selections, and equally wise rejections, as to the material you build 
on. Observation and experience based upon the hints and sugges- 
tions of what is and what is not good food for your body will lead 
you to elect what to eat and drink and what to ignore. Wisdom 
in this regard comes to be admitted late by the most, because we 
are blind to her suggestions. God's method of instruction, and 
that the most natural in the world, we do persistently overlook. 
To the development of the best side of our being the text bids us. 

In the first place, there is held out to us a supreme incentive. 

Materialistic as our age is, we yet are practically unanimous that 
not a Goliath, nor a Croesus, but a Solomon, is the best model for 
a young man to follow. Not a Corbett, nor a Sage, but a Moody, 
blesses most of his race, and most is blessed himself. And this is 
a hopeful phase in our modern life, and gives to every preacher 
the joyful expectation that such a text and theme as this will not 
be addressed to irresponsive hearts, for the text holds out to us 



SOMETHING WOETH THE WHILE. 499 

the helps by which we ma}' attain to the state we acknowledge to 
be best. ' 

I believe that if to any of yon, or to all of yon, there shonld 
come in the secret of yonr chamber to-night the question from God, 
'^Ask what I shall give thee T' weighing all things, like Solomon, yon 
wonld answer, "Give me wisdom": and I say with eqnal assurance 
that any one confronting the responsibilities of life with the same 
solemn sense that marked the man whose words we are considering 
may see God and hear the question for himself, "Ask what I shall 
give r/iee.*' 

The supreme incentive of our text consists in part in this, that 
there is not a note of doubt as to the attainment of the tiling to 
which we are bidden. 

Donbt does snrronnd every ordinary aim in hnman endeavor, 
but this one aim has no donbt-clonds. Eose-hned hope lights the 
way. While the question, "Is it worth while?" must attach to 
every enterprise in ordinary endeavor, in this the question is at once 
transformed into an assertion, "It is worth while," for the at- 
tainment of the end is certified to us at the beginning. Another 
element which makes the incentive a supreme one is the fact that 
the aims sought brings, when attained, intrinsic worth to the 
finder. 

He who seeks silver, or hid treasure, may become, and sometimes 
does, the meaner for the finding; he that becomes skilled in 
human knowledge may exhaust his skill in framing and executing 
base designs, and sometimes does; he who seeks and becomes pos- 
sessed of extraordinary physical power may spend it in brutal 
prowess, and it is not an unheard-of use; but he who seeks wisdom 
finds it and cannot be other than a better being, therefore the 
exercise to which the text invites us is the only thing absolutely 
worth while. 

To complete the trinity of attractions wrapped up in this su- 
preme incentive, consider the fact that the thing we are urged 
to seek, having been found, adds the most vital factor to the per- 
sonalit)' of the finder. The man who found the pearl of great price 
sold all that he had to attain this one thins:. Looking: at this merely 



500 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

as a transaction, it is only the compacting of many things into 
one. The nature of the man is not, necessarily, touched. J^o new- 
element has been added to his personality unless perchance it may 
have been an element of pride arising from a sense of nnnsual tact 
and shrewdness ; but in respect to "wisdom,^^ the thing we are urged 
to seek, it is not an exteriof treasure, like the goodly pearl, or the 
hid treasure in the field wdiich the men in the Bible stories found; 
but a treasure for absorption, something which becomes a part and 
continual possession of the finder. This therefore is the only thing 
worth while. Think you that Jesus said amiss, "Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness?^' At our recent prayer- 
meeting you will recall that tw^o honored members, in speaking to 
the subject — "What have I found to be the best method of resist- 
ing temptation,'' said that at certain times in their lives they had 
been set forward for political office by the respective parties to 
which they belong; one spoke of having been advised to relax 
for a time his religious principles that the non-religious, or rather 
the irreligious, element of the party might not be fearful of a too 
rigid restraint of their lawlessness, should he be elected. You 
recall his answer : "When you nominated me you did so knowing 
my principles, and if you elect me you elect me luith my principles." 
You know^ he w^on; and the title "Honorable" was never more 
honorably borne. You recall that the other said he was advised 
in going to visit the back districts to tal^e a jug of whiskey with 
him, with which to be sociable with the people, you recall his 
answer. You recall, too, the testimony each bore as to the best 
method of resisting temjjtation. The first: "I have set the Lord 
always before me." The second : "See that ye walk circumspectl}^, 
not as fools, but as wise." Young friends, think you that these 
brethren erred. When they chose wisdom and spurned to compro- 
mise themselves and to prove recreant to the principles of the 
kingdom of God for the transitory favor of men. Contrast the joy 
of these brethren with the lament of Wolsey : 

" Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not in mine old age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 



SOMETHING WORTH THE WHILE. 501 

The world's philosophy is false that says or even implies that 
righteousness is below par. 

"Corruption wins not more than honesty.^' Be not deceived, my 
brother ! 
* Know this : 

" When wisdom entereth into thine heart, 
And knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul ; 
Discretion shall preserve thee: 
Understanding shall keep thee : 
To deliver thee from the way of evil, 
From the man that speaketh forward things." 

We have seen the three-sided incentive, and seeing it we are 
thrilled with its possibilities, but its possession is based upon 
necessary conditions. All good is conditioned. Of wisdom, the 
attainment is conditioned first upon intelligence, "If thou seeh 
her as silver.^' To seek her is to be intelligent as to her whereabouts 
and as to the marks of her presence. Men who know not her signs 
stumble over her wealth and die in poverty. 

The possession of religious wealth of gifts is impossible to blind 
credulity. Never a more libelous utterance than, "Ignorance is the 
mother of devotion,^' if used of devotion to God and righteousness. 
"Knowledge is the wing whereby we fly to heaven." 

In the figures used to set forth the condition whereby wisdom is 
to be attained we see the prospector, in seeking to locate a silver- 
bearing vein, following up the gulches in the mountain's side watch- 
ing for and examining closely every bit of oxidized rock, breaking it 
into fragments and noting every sign of mineralization. Having 
found his silver oxide, he scours with the most intense watchfulness 
the whole area of that gulch from that point upward to the apex 
and outward on either side to the very point of the mountain's 
shoulders, breaking and chipping every outputting crag of mineral 
promise — not once, but again and again until he find it, if such an 
issue is possible. 

The other figure is that of a man after hidden treasure. In those 
days of no banks or safety vaults, for safe-keeping the possessor 



502 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

buried his wealth in some secret spot and dying suddenly, or by 
violence, his secret died with him. 

A relative knowing of his wealth sought to recover it. Watch 
him as he examines every secluded spot and persistently digs wher- 
ever signs seem to show a difference from the surrounding ground. 
Intelligence is a necessary condition to the finding of wisdom, 
religion's best fruit. In the study of these figures another condi- 
tion manifests itself, persistence. Our Lord emphasizes this ele- 
ment in the story of the widow and unjust judge. He was led to 
grant her petition lest by her continual coming (persistence) she 
should weary him ; and again by the man, upon whom som.e friend 
from far had dropped in unexpectedly by night and hungry, who 
being breadless, called up his neighbor for assistance by way of a 
loan, he, awakened, was in ill humor because of being disturbed, 
and refused at first to arise and grant the request, yet because of 
his friend's importunity he will rise and give him. as many as he 
needeth. Friendship counted for nothing with the sleepy neighbor, 
but the friend's persistency was a lever that rolled him out of bed 
and pried open the doors of a reluctant generosity. 

In the study of this double picture of our text another strong 
element comes into the foreground: Self-sacrifice. For days, for 
weeks, for months the prospector toils up the canons, gulches and 
draws of the mountains. The treasure-seeker turns up the stones 
of the field and with pick and spade digs up every spot of ground 
that hints of a former disturbance until sunburned, weary, and 
hungry, day after day closes upon a record of fruitless toil. The 
ready money is spent and the clothing is threadbare, credit has been 
drawn upon and exhausted; wife and children share the daily de- 
privations and hopefully contribute to the sacrifice and all, in 
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, terminates in disappointment. 
Not so the quest to which the text invites us. The issue is certain 
and fruitful. 

"Then slialt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the 
knowledge of God." 

To understand is to see into, or, reversing the order of the com- 
pound, to stand under the fear of the Lord as you stand under the 



SOMETHIXG WORTH THE WHILE. 503 

Taiilted skies. You are within and the fear of the Lord is about 
yon. As yon inhale onr common air so then yon absorb the fear 
(reverence) of the Lord. Eeverence of God becomes a natural state 
to the one who has sought wisdom under the stress of purpose indi- 
cated in our text. 

The seventh verse of the first chapter of Proverbs says: "The 
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/^ or as in the 
margin of the revised version for "'beginning'*' read "'chief part"'; 
that is^ the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge. Here 
we have it, intelligent, persistent, self-sacrificing search after wis- 
dom shall produce fear, {. e., reverence, of the Lord, which is the 
chief part of knowledge — the key to the understanding of the Lord 
and his works and ways. Yet this is the very element of character 
which we are in most danger of losing. 

The lament of the more thoughtful regarding the youth of our 
day, and land is over the manifest decay of reverence. Coupled 
with this reverence of the Lord is the. attainment of the knowledge 
of God. So it has come to pass in every age that the most reverent 
soul has been permitted to plunge deepest into the knowledge of 
God. 

Friends, the gospel which we preach unto you is a gospel of 
strength and purpose. Its summons is to the best that is in us. 
What better incentive can an intelligent soul ask than that one of 
threefold aspect which we have considered? The conditions upon 
which success is promised are conditions which every one may meet, 
and the meeting them calls to development the best characteristics 
of the man. The results are such as to create in him that receives 
them the highest satisfaction to himself, with God, and with his 
fellows. Do I not say truly that religion makes a man. It is God 
breathing into our dead beings the breath of life again and we be- 
come living souls. It is something, the one thing worth while. 

If you see what I see and have sought to have you see you will 
come with me to-night into this life which is life indeed. This is 
life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent. Even so. Amen. 



504 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XLII 
THE PATHOS AND POTENCY OF PIETY 



: By Eev. Louis G. Clark, 

Montana 

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." — Psalm 126 : 6. 

I PIETY means something. 
, 1. It means more than a profession of religion to be pious 
in the true sense of the term. 

It is possible for ns to make very loud and long professions of 
righteousness and at the same time be manifestly wanting in true 
piety, that unfeigned godliness which purifies the soul and imparts 
the strength and beauty to life and character that enables it to be a 
glory to God and a ministry of blessing to mankind. 

2. Piety means more than the exact observance of the forms 
of religion. We may have all the forms of Godliness and yet be 
denying (in one way or another) the real poiver thereof. It is 
difficult to think of anything more hollow and more hateful than 
formal piety. Is it not this kind of so-called Christianity that has 
done much to bring into contempt the very word pious ? 

How often we hear expressions like this : ^^He is a very pious 
fellow, look out for him." But those who make such remarks usu- 
ally understand the irony of what they say, and know very well that 
the ''pious fellow" of whom they speak has no real piety. 

3. Piety really means all that is comprehended in genuine love 
of God, and honest and earnest devotion to his service. 

It presupposes purity of heart and life, so far as attainable in a 
world of temptation and sin. 

II. There is often much of pathos in a life of piety; in a life full 
of love to God, and devotion to his service. 

1. This fact is evident from the very nature of things as they 
now exist in this world. 



LOUIS GAYLORD CLARK was born in Tro}^ Oakland county, Michigan, 
December 16, 1853. He has a twin brother. Rev. Willis Gaylord Clark, 
now pastor of a Baptist church in Michigan. His father, F. B. Clark, was a 
native of New York, being the son of Rev. Ichabod Clark, D. D., a Baptist 
minister well known in New York and Illinois, where he did good service 
in the ministry. His mother, Ann Eliza Clark, was a native of Michigan, 
the daughter of John Waldron, a man of strong character and great piety, 
who was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church. 

From childhood Mr. Clark enjoyed the blessings of a Christian home, both 
of his parents being true disciples of the Lord Jesus. His father was a man 
of marked integrity of character and with a high sense of the dignity and 
worth of Christian manhood. 

Mr. Clark's mother also was a Christian of more than ordinary loveli- 
ness, devotion, kindness of heart and sweet cheerfulness of daily life. Her 
children were not alone in their recognition of the purity and the potency 
of her quiet, unaffected piety. Often those who were troubled in body, mind, 
or soul would come to her for help, and they were always comforted. 

Mr. Clark from very early childhood loved the Master and delighted in 
his service. But when about sixteen years of age he was baptized by Rev. 
H. King, and, Avith two of his brothers, became a member of the Baptist 
Church of Highland, Michigan. 

About four years later this church licensed him to preach. 

Most of his youth was spent on his father's farm in Livingston countj^, 
Michigan. As a child he attended the district school near his home. Later 
he went to Ann Arbor High School and Frenton Seminary. He finished a 
three years' course in the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park (noAV 
Divinity School of Chicago University) in May, 1879. During his course 
of study in Chicago and Morgan Park he supplied churches in Chicago and 
elsewhere. 

In July, 1879, he was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Albion, Michi- 
gan, where he had accepted a pastorate. While at Albion he was married 
to Miss Nellie Gray, of Troy, Michigan. After remaining about two years 
in Albion he accepted a call to St. Louie, Michigan, where he had a success- 
ful pastorate of about five years. From St. Louis he was called to North- 
ville, Michigan, and after seven years of pastoral work there was invited 
by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to become its general mis- 
sionary for Montana and Southern Idaho. He began this work in April, 
1893. His field has since been enlarged to include Utah and Wyoming. 
His home is now at Helena, Montana, where he has resided since removing 
to the West. 
(506) 



THE PATHOS AND POTENCY OF PIETY. 507 

(a) Sin is an awful reality in our world. And the pious heart 
is opposed to sin, is in conflict with it in every form. Hence there 
are sure to be days of sadness, days of weeping in the lives of those 
who cannot look upon the reign of sin with indifference, not to 
say with satisfaction. 

The pious heart must be deeply moved when it appreciates some- 
thing of the unspeakable worth of the liberty wherewith Christ has 
made it free, and at the same time knows that so many souls are 
refusing this blessed liberty, and choosing rather the continued bond- 
age and burcien of unrepented and unforgiving sin. In this world 
the saved must weep for the lost. The laws of the spiritual king- 
dom make it certain that he who knows the baleful power of sin, in 
his own heart and in the hearts of others as well, will have more or 
less of pathos in his experience, until he has finished his earthly 
course. 

(h) The frailties and limitations of an earthly life are abiding 
realities. 

N"otwithstanding the triumphs of Christian love, and the victories 
of faith, there is very much in the manifold mysterious things, with- 
in and about us, in this strange earthly life of the soul calculated to 
move the heart to melting and the e^^es to tears. So frail are we and 
such our limitations in understanding. 

2. The fact that a life of piety may be a life of pathos is empha- 
sized by the experience of pious men and women through all ages 
past, in human history. 

(a) Among Old Testament characters we find almost number- 
less illustrations of the union of deep piety and profound pathos 
in a human heart and life. 

Take for example, Abraham. No one can doubt this man's piet}^, 
surely Abraham loved and trusted God. And he was exceeding 
anxious to please his Lord. Still his life was, in many respects, 
most pathetic. Truly there were many days of weeping during the 
one hundred and seventy-five years of this long life journey. N'ot 
to speak of the pathos of Abram's call, when the Lord said unto him, 
"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." Or of his sad 



508 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and pathetic experiences in connection with Lot. ^e need only call 
attention to that tragic chapter in his history, which records the 
story of his sad and weary journey into the land of Moriah, to be 
convinced that his, though a life of piety, was also a life of pathos. 

Who can read the first ten verses of the twenty-second chapter of 
Genesis and then question the fact that there were most pathetic 
experiences in the life of him who was called the father of the 
faithful? 

How our very souls are stirred with deep emotion as, in imagina- 
tion, we accompany him and his son Isaac, his only Isaac whom he 
loved, on their sad pilgrimage to the distant mountain whither God 
had sent them in the land of Moriah ! Was it not a most pathetic 
moment in that life, when : "Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, 
and said, my father : and he said, here am I, my son. And he said, 
Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt 
offering? And Abraham said. My son, God will provide himself a 
lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together." 

But Abraham is only one of the many Old Testament characters 
whose lives illustrate the truth which we are considering. Had we 
time we might speak of Moses, the mighty man of God, who served 
his Lord so long and so well, and yet lived a life so full of most 
pathetic experiences. 

From his very childhood to the time of his mysterious death his 
whole life seems to have been filled with pathos. Taken from his 
mother's loving arms to be the foster son of a proud princess in the 
home of a rich and wicked king, brought up amidst the vanities and 
dangers of a palace, and at the end of many years of ease and honor 
and pleasure, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; returning to 
his people, hoping to be of service to them, but discovering that they 
were not ready to receive him. He then goes far away into a desert 
land and for forty years waits and works in obscurity. Then, con- 
scious of great weakness, he takes up (in obedience to a divine call) 
a work such as no other man has ever undertaken. And then there 
comes to him all the pain and pathos of those long and eventful years 
of wandering in the wilderness, praying for and pleading with a 



THE PATHOS AND POTEIs'CY OF PIETY. 509 

people whom he loved and wanted to save, yet a people who were 
often full of rebellion against their God and of wrath toward him. 

I am sure no one can read the life of Moses without seeing that, 
although he was a man of piety he was also a man in whose expe- 
rience there was much that was pathetic. 

Again we might refer to the illustrations afforded by the lives of 
the many godly womicn referred to in the Old Testament. Such as 
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, as well as Esther and Kaomi and 
Euth and man}^ others who like these went forth weeping, bearing 
the precious seed of womanly piety and mother-like devotion to the 
welfare of the world and the glory of God. But time would fail us 
to speak of all the Old Testament saints in whose lives we find very 
clear demonstration of the fact that pathos and piety often go hand 
in hand. 

(h) Among the most noteworthy characters mentioned in the 
l^ew Testament we also find many examples to confirm us in the 
belief that a pious life may have in it much of pathos. 

We can take time to refer to only a few of these great and good 
characters. 

John the Baptist was without doubt one of the most godly men 
of his age. He was filled with the Spirit from his birth. And 
all his days were devoted to the service of God. Yet his was, in some 
respects the saddest of lives. What depth of pathos there was in his 
prison experience ! How sad it seems that he should experience so 
much wrong and wretchedness, that he should come to question, if 
after all, the Christ had really come into the world? What could 
be more pathetic than his sending his disciples to ask Jesus if he 
were indeed the Christ ? 

How dark that prison house must have been to make him doubt, 
even for a moment, that the one of whom he had borne witness was 
indeed the Light of the World? 

And again, how often is our attention called to the many devoted 
yet sad hearted women who followed Jesus and ministered unto him? 
Among them all, none could have loved with a heart more full of 
the joy and of sorrow than was the heart of the mother of our suffer- 
ing Saviour. Once more, we are led to think of the pathos and the 



610 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

piety commingled in the lives and martyr deaths of such New 
Testament characters as Stephen and Paul, Peter and John; and 
many such as those of whom the apostle speaks when he says (Heb. 
11: 35-38) : "Women received their dead raised to life again: and 
others were tortured, not accepting deliverance: that they might 
obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings 
and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They 
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with 
the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented. (Of whom the world was not worthy.) 
They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves 
of the earth." Such was the pathos in the lives of the pious men 
and women who became the followers of Jesus in the early days of 
Christianity. 

But it is in the life of our Lord himself that we find the most 
striking example of mingled piety and pathos. 

Christ^s devotion to God, the Father, was absolutely perfect. 
He ahuays did those things that pleased God. And yet, there is 
a large and true sense in which it may be said that he lived the 
saddest life the world has ever seen. He was a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief. His was a life full of the pathos from the 
manger to the cross. How pathetic it seems that in the helplessness 
of infancy his life should be sought by the wickedness and the power 
of a selfish and ungrateful world, which he had come to bless and to 
save ! What pathos there is in the story of his return to the home 
of his childhood in the days of his strong young manhood and early 
ministry ; returning to do good but received with contempt, imbelief, 
and murderous hatred ! 

And thus the sadness and the suffering of his sinless life con- 
tinues until the culmination is reached in the superlative pathos of 
Gethsemane and Calvary, the sleeping disciples and the mocking 
multitude, the agony of the garden and the anguish of the cross, 
the smitten shepherd and the scattered sheep. 

(c) And all through the Christian centuries the same truth 
has been illustrated over and over again in the lives of those who 
have loved and served the suffering Saviour. Many martyrs and 



THE PATHOS AXD POTENCY OF PIETY. 511 

missionaries and mnltitucles of godly men and women have gone 
forth weeping, bearing precious seed of gospel truth and life, during 
the unfolding years of the Christian era. To name them all would 
be impossible. But none of them have failed to prove that there is 
pathos in a life of piety. 

III. There is potency as well as pathos in a life of piety. 

1. We are assured of this blessed fact by God's word. Our text 
says: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
shall doubtless come again with 'rejoicing^ bringing his sheaves with 
him." And Paul, in closing that marvelous and matchless fifteenth 
chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, says : "Therefore, my 
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye Jcnow that your lahor is not in 
vain in the Lord!' 

These inspired words are in perfect accord with the entire teach- 
ing of God's word, both in the Old and the Xew Testament. There- 
fore we may be sure that there is potency in piety because the ^Vord 
of God soys so. 

2. The experience of pious men and women through all ages 
since the world began is also proof of this truth. 

Abraham and Moses, David and Elijah, and many more mighty 
m.en of old, renowned for their piety, had many and marked expe- 
riences to prove the potency of godliness is their own lives and the 
world as well. 

The disciples of Christ demonstrated over and over again in their 
experiences that it was not in vain to serve the Lord. They were 
given to see manifold evidences of the potency of their piety. All 
human history began to be most wonderfully changed through the 
instrumentality of their love and devotion to Jesus of Xazareth. 

In the life of the Master himself this truth finds its fullest 
demonstration. Although Jesus lived a life of suffering and of 
sorrow, a life which had in it more pathos than any other life this 
world has known, yet his was a life of divine potency. 

He went about doing good and the power of that great and good 
life can never be fully appreciated by men. God alone can under- 
stand its real worth. The songs and service of saints in heaven. 



512 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

through ages eternal, will witness to the mighty potency of the self- 
sacrificing, pathetic, earthly life of the Son of Mary and the Son 
of God. Jesus, for the jo^j that was set before him endured the cross, 
despising the shame. 

And thus has it ever been in the experience of the truly pious 
followers of the Christ. 

Livingstone found this true in Africa, Judson in Burma, Spur- 
geon in London, Moody in Chicago, and numberless others in all 
parts of the v*dde world where hearts have been warmed with love 
to God and lives have been consecrated to his service. 

ly. Application. 

1. If in other days pious men and women have found something 
of sadness and suffering in their lives ; if the blessed Master himself 
was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, we should not 
think it strange if while endeavoring to live lives of piety in these 
days we too find something of pathos in our experiences. 

2. With the assurances given us in the word of God, and the 
added testimony to be found in the experience of the truly pious 
through all past ages, we have no right to doubt for a moment 
the potency of piety. 

As sure as God's word is true, and the testimony of history and 
experience can be relied upon, so sure can we be that our labor 
(even in the great new West) is not in vain in the Lord. The same 
mighty God who gives us the field and the seed and the seed time has 
given us promise of harvest time and garnered sheaves. 

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall 
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.^^ 

The godly may suffer and rejoice. "The ungodly are not so, but 
are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." 



HENRY VAN ENGELEX was born in Allegan county, Michigan, June 
29, 1868. His parents were natives of Holland and were among the pioneer 
Dutch settlers of that section of the State. He was converted in childhood, 
and with the encouragement of his parents became deeply interested in the 
istudy of the Bible. He received his early training in the country schools 
near his home. He was further educated at Hope College, Michigan, and 
later at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He was brought 
up under psedobaptist training, but gradually found himself unable to en- 
dorse infant baptism and sprinkling as the mode. After much careful and 
prayerful study of the Scriptures he became convinced that immersion of 
the believer in water is the only baptism taught in the New Testament. 
This led him in January, 1890, to offer himself for baptism into the First 
Baptist Church at Idaho Falls, Idaho. Two months later this church 
licensed him to preach. On June 29th of the same year he was ordained, 
and, under the appointment of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
he became pastor of the church into which he was baptized. After serving 
this church two years he spent one year at the University of Chicago. He 
returned to Idaho Falls and served the church there for two and a half 
years more, and then became pastor of the First Baptist Church at Great 
Falls, Montana, one of the State's leading cities, with a population of 
about 15,000. He remained there for three and a half years. On Novem- 
ber 1, 1899, Mr. Van Engelen became pastor of the First Baptist Church of 
Pocatello, Idaho, one of the most promising young cities of the "Gem of the 
Mountains." Two months later the church at Blackfort was added to his 
pastorate. On these fields he has labored under the appointment of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, the noble mother of so many of 
the churches in the West. 
(513) 




UE^. ^mm ^m iMSELica. 



THE GREAT EPOCH OF HISTORY. 515 

XLIII 
THE GEEAT EPOCH OF HISTOEY 



By Eev. Hexry Yax Exgelex, 
Idaho 

"Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, 
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: unto whom it was 
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things 
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel 
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven: which things the 
angels desire to look into." — 1 Peter 1 : 10, 12. 

IT TforJd seem that to all people who are in any degree inclined 
to be thoughtful, as we stand upon the threshold not only of a 
new year, but also of a new century, this wonld certainly be a time 
of deep, earnest reflection. Yery naturall}^ our minds at this time 
dwell upon the wonderfnl achievements and marvelons progress of 
the past centnry. As we look back we think of how one hundred 
years a,2"o the most rapid means of transportation was by means of a 
stage coach, and we contrast this with our present facilities as we 
speed over the country on a railroad train. We realize how the 
pressing of steam and electricity into the servitude of man, as has 
been done in so many ways, has ministered so extensively to man's 
comxfort and delight. We think of the invention of the telegraph 
in 1843 and the telephone in 18 77 and what this means to the civil- 
ized world. Then w^e think of the almost infinite variety of machine- 
ry which the inventive mind of mi.an has produced during the past 
century, and how thereby the burden of the toiling masses has been 
made lighter and how mankind in general has been profited thereby. 
Again, it is impossible for us at this time to overlook the wonderful 
advancement in education, art, science, literature, and religion. 
When we think of all this we may well exclaim, "How greatly privi- 
leged are we to be permitted to live at the opening of this new cen- 



516 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tury, and what wonderful advantages and opportunities are ours V 
In this connection, however, let us not overlook the fact that these 
favorable conditions have not come by chance. We know this could 
not be. No, the Infinite Mind has designed all this for the welfare 
of mankind. He, the Great and Holy One, our Creator and our 
Father "in whom we live and move and have our being," and who 
holds the sceptre of the universe in his right hand, has planned all 
these privileges and advantages for us, and has brought all these 
good things to pass. 

A DISTINCT EPOCH 

[N'ow, as we also very naturally at this time cast a retrospective 
glance over the centuries of the past, and as we trace the hand of 
Providence in the history of the human race, we are bound to discover 
a centre so conspicuous that it compels our notice. We cannot help 
but distinguish a distinct epoch standing out amidst surrounding 
history in such bold relief as to command our attention. We see dis- 
tinctly how everything v/hich precedes this epoch points forward to 
it, and hov/ everything which follows points back to it and is in- 
fluenced by it. This great epoch — this central fact in human his- 
tory is the coming of Jesus Christ into the world and his atoning 
death on Calvary. Does not all history and all literature concede 
this fact ? Do not all historians in all civilized lands chronicle every 
event which occurred before this great epoch as having occurred so 
many years B. C, and every event which has transpired since as 
having taken place so many years A. D. ? Yes, the entire civilized 
world reckons time from this great centre of human history. 

ALL PROPHECY POINTS FORWARD TO THIS EPOCH 

Notice how the inspired apostle indicates to us that all prophecy 
points forward to this epoch. "Of which salvation the prophets have 
enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that 
should come unto you." AVhen we speak of Messianic prophecy we 
not only refer to a few isolated passages referring directly to Christ's 
advent, but when we study the Old Testament in its true light we 
find tliat from Genesis to Malachi it all points to Christ. The en- 
tire history of God's dealings with his chosen people is prophetic of 
Christ's coming. Their elaborate worship of the tabernacle and tem- 



THE GREAT ErOCH OF HISTORY. 517 

pie also prefigured this, for their priestly line was typically Messi- 
anic, and their sacrifices clearly symbolized the great sacrifice the 
Son of God was to make on Calvary. Even the government of Israel, 
at first a theocracy and later a kingdom, was typical of the spiritual 
kingdom the Messianic king would establish at his coming. So the 
entire Old Testament is predictive of this great central point in his- 
tory. What is true of the Old Testament in general is especially 
true of the prophetical writings. "To him gave all the prophets 
witness,'^ said Peter in his address at the house of Cornelius. One 
phase of a prophet's work was to reveal the future. Many years 
ahead he sees a superior and more glorious dispensation. Sometimes 
his descriptions of that blessed time are wonderful, and under the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit he presents to us conditions beyond his 
own comprehension. As he paints to us in glowing colors such a 
blessed future for Israel and for humanity in general, he always 
places in the foreground the majestic figure of the Messiah, under 
whose reign all these blessings will be enjoyed. Even as clearly as a 
great river can be traced to its mouth, so distinctly can we trace all 
prophecy to the cross of Calvary. Even the extreme agony of the 
crucifixion is vividly depicted. Christ and his cross is therefore the 
focal point to which all rays of prophetic light converge. 

THIS EPOCH THE GREAT THEIME OF THE GOSPEL 

"Unto vrhom it was revealed, that not unto themselves but 
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported 
imto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Just as 
ail prophecy finds its fulfillment in Christ and his cross, so in 
turn is this the great fountain of life from w^hich the Gospel 
stream flows forth. The Old Testament and the New are thus 
seen to form one book, the one the counterpart of the other with 
"Jesus and him crucified'^ for its central theme. The inspired apos- 
tle would have us see that messengers of the cross who preach the 
Gospel as "the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven'^ directs them, do 
emphasize this one great central fact in the world's history to which 
all preceding ages look forward, and around which all the great 
events of human history revolve. This, moreover, constitutes the 



518 THE AMEBIC AN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

fountain from which "Joy unspeakable and full of glory^^ flows forth 
to gladden human hearts. "Of which salvation the prophets have 
enquired/*^ says the apostle in oiir text. Yes, "Jesiis Christ and him 
crucified" mean above everything else salvation to a lost world. The 
Gospel is pre-eminently the good news of salvation. Salvation is 
the great crowning work of God. Jesns declares that the one su- 
preme purpose of his mission on earth was "to seek and to save that 
which was lost." How vividly that mission reveals to every one of 
us our deepest need ! What you and I need above everything else is 
to be saved from our sins. But if God in the Gospel of his Son 
offers salvation full and free to all who will accept it, and if it be 
Christ^s mission and Christ's purpose to save us, then every one of us 
may rejoice that this highest of all blessings may be ours. My un- 
saved friend, will you not recognize your need of salvation in the 
light of Christ's cross? Oh, how great and how terrible are your 
sins in the light of Calvary ! Do not think lightly of sin. Does not 
that precious blood which flowed for our redemption convince you of 
the exceeding great sinfulness of sin ? Then come to him who died 
to save you, for he said that he came to save 3^ou and he is able to 
carry out his gracious purpose with you, if you will but trust in him. 
We are reminded in the text that this salvation could only be ours 
through "the sufferings of Christ and the glory" that followed. 
This emphasizes to us the greatness of the sacrifice that was necessary 
in order that salvation might be ours. The central fact in human 
history signifies that we were "not redeemed with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot." So when we fix our e3^es upon 
the great central point in human history we behold God's great 
sacrifice, and here we find the Gospel stream of salvation to have its 
source. 

EVEN THE ANGELS ARE INTERESTED 

This central fact in human history is a matter of such great and 
far-reaching importance tbat even the angels in heaven "desire to 
look into it." The word indicates that they are deeply and pro- 
foundly interested. Was not this interest symbolized in the cheru- 
bim above the mercy seat of the sacred ark of the covenant? The 



THE GREAT EPOCH 01 HISTOET. 519 

Xew Testament in dilierent places assures ns of the interest of these 
heaTenly beings in our salvation. One of these celestial messengers 
annoiinc-ed the jovfol news of his birth to the shepherds in Bethle- 
hem's fields, and a multitude of the hearenly host chanted forth 
upon the midnight air that wonderful anthem, "Glory to God in the 
highest, on earth peace, good-will toward mem'"' While the body 
of onr Lord was in the tomb it was an angel who rolled away the 
stone, and he first annotmced his resurrection to the woman. While, 
of conrse, they do not share directly in the benefits of salvation, 
nevertheless it is a theme of all-absorbing interest to them. How 
this also emphasizes the greatness and sc-ope and significance of this 
salvation which God offers to man, when we consider that these 
beings of a superior intellectnal capacity, nnclonded by sin, find 
here a theme worthy of their constant and careful study. The 
Saviour himself teaches that their interest in our salvation is so deep 
and c-onstant that wherever and whenever one sinner repents they 
never fail to take notice of it, and it is to them an occasion of joy. 
The angels in heaven, therefore, do not fail to be interested in the 
great central fact of human history, the great source of heaven's 
choic-est blessings to the children of mai. Surely their interest ought 
to be a great inspiration and a blessed comfort to us. 

HOW PSOFOUXD SHOULD BE CUB IXTEEEST 

If Christ and his atoning death mark the great epoch in history; 
if this constitutes the most significant event of the ages: if this be 
the all-absorbing topic of the Old Testament, especially of prophecy; 
if this is also the one great theme of the Gospel, and if even the an- 
gels in glory find this worthy of their constant interest, can we then 
afford not to be interested ? When in addition to all this we also take 
this significant fact into consideration, that this great event trans- 
pired solely in order that the highest weliare of the human race 
might be promoted, then it is but fitting and rational that every one 
of us should be intensely interested in this great epoch. Surely we 
who were intended to be the recipients of the blessings that come as 
a result of the cross caniiot afford to overlook it or ignore it. Let 
us therefore, as intelligent, moral beings, as those created in God's 
own image and as the objects of his tender love and care, step out 



520 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

into this new century with our eyes fixed upon this central event of 
history, wherein God's interest toward humanity is so wondrously 
displayed, and in the light of which our deepest need is so clearly 
and unmistakably revealed. 

Surely each of us ought to be personally interested and individ- 
ually receive the gift of salvation and eternal life which' God has 
intended thereby to bestow upon us. Eest assured that our joy, our 
peace, our happiness, yea, even our prosperity and progress in the new 
century which we are now entering, depend wholly upon our attitude 
toward the crucified Christ. How can we be truly prosperous if we 
neglect the one thing needful ? Should not our hearts respond with 
love and gratitude as we recognize God's gracious and exalted pur- 
pose with us, as so clearly revealed to us in the word of God, as made 
so obvious by Christ's death for us on the cross, and as attested to 
by all the blessings and privileges which now are ours ? Let us not 
frustrate God's plan with us and thus disappoint our Maker, for if 
we do, how great shall be our disappointment in the end. Let us at 
the beginning of this new century rejoice that God is so deeply inter- 
ested in us, and that he is so anxious to promote our highest welfare, 
and let us resolve by his grace to benefit by all the blessings and priv- 
ileges with which he has surrounded us, but above everything else let 
it be our first concern that we accept the "unspeakable gift" of his 
love, in order that our Creator's purpose may be realized in our lives. 
Let us not make the fatal mistake of disregarding or ignoring what 
God has set so prominently before us in history as well as his word. 

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation." There 
will be no escape for us. On the other hand, if we will recognize 
what God has made so prominent, fix our gaze on it, set our hearts 
upon it and accept the benefits of the cross, everlasting peace and joy 
shall be our blessed portion and we shall be new creatures in Christ 
Jesus, living the true life, the full life, the endless life. 



B. F. HUDELSON was bom in Stanislaus county, California, December 
30, 1858, his father, James G. Hudelson, being one of the California 
pioneers, and his mother, Mrs. L. M. Hudelson, crossing the plains from 
Missouri in 1857. 

His boyhood was ispent on a farm. He graduated from the High Seliool, 
and took up the study of law. When a boy of fifteen years he was made 
conscious of a call from God to preach the gospel, a call that was resisted, 
however, for about fifteen years, but his mother's prayer was answered, and 
God'is call was heeded in February, 1890, in a prayer-meeting service of the 
Baptist Church at Ceres, Cal., Rev. J. C. Webb, pastor. On the following 
Sunday he was buried in baptism and commenced active Christian work, 
preaching his first sermon in less than one week from the time of his con- 
version, a sermon that was owned of God in the conversion of an infidel. He 
was licensed by the Ceres Church and called to the pastorate of the Baptist 
Church of Modesto, the county seat of his native county, in May, 1890, 
and was ordained the following September. He continued this pastorate 
till November, 1891, at which time he entered upon the pastoral work of the 
Goldengate Mission of Oakland, Cal. In less than two months he organized 
this mission into a church, and had commenced planning for lots and a 
building, and on the following May dedicated a beautiful church edifice,, 
very hapily located. During the first year of his pastorate there he was 
privileged to see a little band of nineteen grow till the one hundred line 
had been crossed, the larger part of the-growth being by baptism. A deep 
spiritual interest, and consequent rapid growth continued to the close of 
his pastorate. His next pastorate was his present settlement at Reno, 
Nevada. This being a university city, and the largest and best business 
point between Sacramento, Cal., and Ogden, Utah, it is regarded by him as 
his most important pastorate. His work was commenced in Nevada in 
February, 1817, and during a little more than three years he has seen the 
church membership grow from sixty to one hundred and eighty, the church 
taken off the hands of the Home Mission Board, and an old indebtedness 
almost entirely liquidated. Indeed the Lord has richly blessed his work 
wherever he has been called to labor. He was united in marriage to Miss 
Ida C. Woodford at Modesto, Cal., in August, 1889. The union has been 
blessed with four children — three daughters and a son. He never tires of 
speaking words of praise of the help that has been rendered him by his faith- 
ful Christian wife. 

Since the above was put in type the news has come that Mr. Hudelson, 
on January 17, 1903, passed to his eternal reward, 
(521) 




^E^. i. F. mmu 



Paul's sufficiency vs. ATHE^^IAX efficiency. 523 

XLIV 
PAUL'S SUFFICIEISrCY VS. ATHENIAN EFFICIENCY 



By Eev. B. F. Hudelson, 

Nevada 

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, 
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." — Acts 17: 16. 

WE STAND in the morning light of a bnsy day, anxiously in- 
quiring for the practical; for no one can hope to secure 
for himself an interested hearing who fails to deal in a practical 
way with the questions of the hour. Of all men, living or dead, 
the name of Paul stands pre-eminently before us as the one, the 
study of whose life will help us most in meeting the requirements 
of our station in life, the God-Man excepted. And I know of no 
place visited by Paul, in his great missionary work, where he is to 
be seen in his true worth, to better advantage, than at Athens. 
You and I too often encourage tlie inclination to misinterpret 
the meaning of the "Be all things to all men" in shaping our 
course by conditions with which we are surrounded, rather than 
stand seemingly alone, in "Laying to the plummet and hewing 
to the line." 

What will men think? what will men say? should not be the 
questions that govern with Christians. The dominating thought 
should ever be, what does God think, and what will God say in that 
hour when we are called upon for an accounting of our steward- 
ship. Our life in its influence upon others may possess the ele- 
ments of efficiency, but lack the element of sufficiency. With no 
disposition to speak lightly of the great value of efficiency, but 
with the desire of emphasizing the positive need of sufficiency, I 
ask, what advantage to you, to me, to those whose lives have been 
influenced by us, if when the roll of rewards is called, we find that 
in the battles of life a hundred minor victories were won with skill, 
and yet the enemy we hoped to vanquish remains the victor still ? 



524 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Shall we learn a lesson from Paul at Athens? Then let ns ask 
him what he saw in his first visit to that cit}^ Our text informs 
us that he saw "a city wholly given over to idolatry/' As he walked 
the streets, idols met his eye from every direction. That splendid 
work of art, the magnificent statue of Minerva, twenty-six cubits 
high, lifting its head above the Acropolis, commanding the atten- 
tion of all who lifted their eyes from the street beneath their feet. 

A vast idol worship, so systematized as to be attractive, 
overspread the whole place, and thrust itself upon his notice. His- 
torians tell us that the Athenians surpassed all States in the atten- 
tion paid to the worship of the gods. In short, the city of Athens 
was wholly given over to idol worship, and yet Athens was proba- 
bly the most favorable specimen of a heathen city that Paul could 
have visited. In proportion to its size, it is more than likely that 
this city contained the most learned, civilized, philosophical, and 
art-loving population on the face of the inhabited globe — the citj 
which gave to the world the names of Socrates and Plato, of Solon 
and Demosthenes, of Sophocles and Euripides, the city of mind 
and intellect, where the softened lines of the beauties of nature 
were by the trained hand of the artist reproduced, and studied and 
admired from above the hearthstone, when the evening hour called 
the scholar or tradesman home, and the gentle voice of poetry sang 
the weary to sleep. 

And yet with this city wholly given over to idolatry, and the true 
God unknown, what must have been the condition in the darker 
places of the earth? Athens thus spiritually blind; what must 
have been the state of man in Babylon, Alexandria, Corinth, and 
even at Eome — Mighty Eome ! Who can read the words, "Wholly 
given over to idolatry'' in the light of this city's intellectuality, 
without clearly seeing the absolute need of a divine revelation ? 

Man will have a god to worship, for human nature, corrupt as it 
is, demands a religion. Take from man the Bible and his will be a 
religion without light or peace or hope — a blind superstition, stalk- 
ing forth with outstretched bony hand of tyrannical exaction, be- 
fore which humanity will march to the grave with bowed form and 
measured tread. Take from man the Bible and you remove from 



Paul's sufficiency vs. Athenian efficiency. 525 

the world the only religion that wears an angel's smile, and offers 
the olive branch of eternal peace. Can any one study the history 
and spiritual condition of Athens at the time of Paul's visit with- 
out being forced to the conclusion that the highest intellectual 
training is no security against utter darkness in religion, for who 
will doubt that mind and reason were highly educated there ? The 
disciples of Greek philosophy were versed in logic, familiar with 
the law of ethics, the rules of rhetoric, acquainted with history 
and learned in poetry, and yet with all their mental discipline, 
their city was wholly given over to idolatry. 

Are we to be told in this, the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
tury, with the candle of the past sending forth its light of instruc- 
tion and ray of warning, that an education can be complete with- 
out a knowledge of and intimate acquaintance with the treasure 
of treasures, the Book of books, the old yet new, and ever-precious 
Bible! It may please some to bow before and worship at the 
shrine of mere intellectuality, and speak in glowing terms of the 
debt the world owes to the Greek mind, but while they are doing so, 
I would call to their attention a fact that ought to be written in 
burnished gold, to-wit: without the knowledge revealed by the Holy 
Spirit to the Hebrew nation, old Greece would have found a tomb 
made by the hand of idolatry, she would have gone down in her final 
setting beneath the black gloom of her unintelligible superstition. 
The follower of Socrates or Plato might have talked well, and even 
eloquently upon many questions, but he never could have answered 
the jailer's question, "What must I do to be saved ?" Nor could he 
with the voice of an inner consciousness triumphantly shout in 
life's last hour, "0 death, where is thy sting? grave, where is 
thy victory?" 

Let us also learn the lesson so plainly taught, that the highest excel- 
lence in the material arts is no preservation against the grossest 
superstition. The perfection of Athenian sculpture and architec- 
ture stands forth a fact that cannot be denied. As Paul walked 
the streets of that city his eye rested on many a thing of architectu- 
ral beauty, and yet the men who conceived, thought out, and exe- 
cuted the magnificent buildings there were utterly ignorant of the 



526 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

one true God. We are living in a day when the world is well-nigh 
intoxicated with self-conceit about our progress in art and science. 
We think, write, and talk about our machinery and other manu- 
factures, as though nothing were impossible. My friend, let it 
never be forgotten that the highest art is consistent with spiritual 
death. Athens the city of Phidias was wholly given over to idol- 
atry. An Athenian sculptor might have designed a matchless 
tomb, but his art could not wipe a single tear from the mourner's 
eye. 

These are some of the questions which we should carefully and 
prayerfully study. They are questions with which we have to do; 
they fit the day in which we live ; we are meeting every day and on 
ever side with questionings about the truth and value of revelation ; 
let us then be prepared to give a reason for the faith we hold; a 
reason which proves the necessity for and the value of revelation. 

Now let us ask and see how Paul was affected by the sight that 
met his view at Athens? A mere artist visiting that famous city 
for the first time would have been enraptured with the beauty of 
its buildings; a mere orator or statesman would have had in his 
mind the memory of Pericles or Demosthenes; a mere literary 
man would have kept before him the names of Sophocles and 
Plato; a merchant would have cast his eye toward the southwest, 
in which direction about five miles distant was the principal harbor 
Piraeus; but the apostle of Jesus Christ was filled with one 
absorbing thought, occasioned by none of these things. It is true 
he had visited a wonderful city for the first time, but he could see 
nothing but the spiritual condition of that people; he stood at 
Athens and thought of nothing so much as Athenian souls; like 
Moses and Elijah, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw 
the city given over to idolatr}^; it moved his heart to see so many 
perishing for lack of knowledge amid the very boast of intellec- 
tuality; he was stirred with holy sorrow; here were hands capable 
of noble works; minds capable of noble conceptions; and yet the 
God who gave life and breath, the Father, whose tender considera- 
tion for them was such that he numbered the hairs of their head, 
was not glorified. 



PAULAS SUFFICIENCY VS. ATHENIAN" EFFICIENCY. 527 

He was stirred with holy indignation against sin; he was 
stirred with holy zeal for his Master's glory. These are the 
natural feelings of the one who is born of the spirit of God. 
Where there is true grace there will be tender concern for the lives 
and souls of others. True sonship begets zeal for the Father's 
glory. It can be truthfully said of the children of God that they 
not only mourn over sin in their own lives, but they mourn over 
sin in others. Lot vexed his soul from day to day over the wicked- 
ness of Sodom. Eivers of water ran down the eyes of David be- 
cause they kept not God's law; the godly in Ezekiel's time would 
sigh and cry because of the abominations that were done in the 
midst of the land; and Jesus beheld the favored city of Jerusalem, 
in its rejection of him and his religion, and wept over it. 
Yes, my fellow-journeyers here, it can be laid down as one of the 
first principles of scriptural religion that he who can behold sin 
and not feel sorrowful over it has not the mind of the spirit of our 
dear Lord and Master. Ought not these truths stir the spirit of 
each of us as we look out upon the heathen world and think upon 
its condition. More than half a billion of immortal souls are at 
this very moment steeped in ignorance, trembling beneath the ter- 
rible exactions of a gross superstition, and bowing at the shrine 
of idolatry, living and dying without God, without Christ and 
without hope. In sickness and sorrow they have no comfort, in old 
age and death they have no lamp to direct their footsteps; one 
hundred thousand or more, in these lands, d}dng daily with no 
hope beyond. Shall we say to them, wait awhile longer, when they 
have been waiting these centuries on the tardy movements of the 
church that is loud in its profession of loyalty to Christ ? 

God knows that we have sinned enough in sleeping in the face of 
these conditions, and wasting our energies often in useless contro- 
versies and wranglings over forms and ceremonies. God so loved 
that he gave to save, and never will we prove our loyalty and love 
until we give that men may live. 

Let us look at conditions nearer home. Consider the state of our 
great cities. In every great metropolis of these United States there 
are districts where Christianity in its saving power is practically 



528 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

•unknown. Walk through any of the back districts, and even many 
of the prominent streets on a Saturday evening, on Sunday, or a 
public holiday, and see how Sabbath breaking, intemperance, and 
general ungodliness appear to rule and reign supreme. Indeed 
**the strong man armed keepeth his house and his goods are at 
peace.^^ What shall our answer be? What shall we say to these 
people ? They are meeting us on every side, they are to be seen and 
heard in every society. As we answer that question, let us lift 
up before our eyes that mighty model of a Christian, walking the 
streets of Athens and stirred in spirit over the condition of the 
people, and ask ourselves whether we feel about the idolatry of the 
heathen world and the sin of our own land as he felt? 

The centuries that have come since Paul stood at Athens have 
made no difference in the nature of Grod, the necessities of fallen 
man, the realities of death and the judgment, the sinfulness of 
idol worship, or the duty of Christians. It may be true that the 
wit and wisdom of this world is on the side of sin and Satan, but 
the eternal principles and truths of the New Testament are writ- 
ten unmistakably. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
to-morrow, and so long as the Bible is the Bible, charity to souls is 
one of the first Christian graces, and it is a solemn and imperative 
duty to feel for the unconverted and heathen. He who knows 
nothing of this feeling has yet to become a learner in the school of 
Jesus Christ; he who despises or disregards this feeling is not so 
much the successor of Paul as he is of the one who said, "Am I my 
brother's keeper?" 

It is interesting and helpful to notice what Paul did at Athens. 
Many of us would have said there is no use trying to do an}i;hing, 
and, suiting our action to the word, would have turned away with- 
out an effort ; but what did Paul do ? He commenced work, aggres- 
sive work, and he commenced alone; he waited for no one. Com- 
bining holy wisdom with holy boldness, he commenced in a way 
most likely to obtain a permanent footing for the Gospel. He dis- 
puted or held discussions with the Jews and devout persons in tlie 
synagogues, and afterwards in the market places with them that 
met him there. Combining fiery zeal with judicious tact and sane- 



Paul's sufficiency vs. Athenian efficiency. 529 

tified common sense, he goes to work with genuine earnestness, but 
what did he talk abont, what was his text, and what was his ser- 
mon ? It is true that he exposed the folly of idol worship, and held 
up before the ignorant multitude the nature of G-od, asserting his 
nearness, and the certainty of a solemn reckoning at the judgment. 
But I do not find his theme, text, or sermon in any of these. Go 
with me to the eighteenth verse of the chapter from which we select 
our text, and read there a sentence, and reread it until it is written 
into your life; a sentence that ought to be written in gold on the 
world's fairest page; a sentence which names the secret of success 
of every ambassador of eternal verities; a sentence which should 
forever silence the impudent assertion that Paul was sometimes 
content with preaching and teaching deism or natural theology. 
We are told in the eighteenth verse that the one thing that arrested 
the attention of the Athenians vras that Paul preached Christ and 
the resurrection, meaning, I believe, Jesus and the redemption he 
brought by his death and rising from the grave. 

Is it not a fact that there is a doctrinal lesson in this for us 
all? The great, grand subject of all our preaching and teaching 
should be Jesus Christ. However learned or unlearned, high born 
or low, our audience, Christ crucified, rising, interceding, pardon- 
ing, receiving, saving, must be the grand theme of all our work as 
Christians. We shall never find another that will do one half so 
much good. We must sow as Paul sowed, if we would reap as Paul 
reaped. Let us also learn from Paul at Athens that we must never 
be afraid to stand alone for Christ, if need be. 

Let us learn one thing more, as an encouragement to faith, that 
if we preach, teach, and live the Gospel, we can do so with perfect 
assurance that it will do good. That lone Jew of Tarsus, standing 
as he did, without companion or helper, seemed to accomplish lit- 
tle or nothing, at the time. The philosophers of the Stoics and 
Epicureans laughed at him, and when he had departed, doubtless 
said that he had wasted his time on a fooPs errand, but he had 
lighted a torch or ]\Iar*s Hill that day, that would burn on with 
ever increasing splendor. He had enkindled a flame that would 
burn on with ever-increasing warmth. He had named a name 



530 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

before which the walls of the Parthenon would crumble into decay. 
'Not till the record made by the white-handed angel of God shall be 
opened in the presence of the redeemed throng in the home eternal, 
will Jew or Gentile know the full sweep of the mighty work accom- 
plished that day, and then, as the saints in glory will gather round 
the apostle Paul, he will call for the grand old song that I believe 
we will sing in heaven, 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name ! 
Let angels prostrate fall, 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 

My brother, take courage. We may be called upon in our work 
for the Master to go forth and sow in tears, but we "Shall come 
again with joy bringing our sheaves with us." Let us lift our eyes 
unto the hills whence cometh our help, and then we shall have no 
occasion to be ashamed of the weapons of our warfare. The gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ meets the wants and needs of our day. Some 
men may content themselves with clamoring for what they are 
pleased to call the new, but give me the truth that has been tested 
and proven by the centuries. The Gospel is not worn out; it is the 
newest, the truest, the richest treasure of earth. It is not behind 
the times, but stands as the signal light in the morning of this 
twentieth century, beckoning us on to higher and holier ground. 
There must be nothing added to the old Book of God, and nothing 
taken from it. The old path, the old truth, is the golden way for 
tottering age and buoyant youth, leading from earth to heaven. 



HEXRY BOLTON STEELMAX was born in Norway, Herkimer county, 
N. Y., November 15, 1855, where his father, Henry Steelman, a native of 
Delaware and a graduate both of Madison University and the Hamilton 
Theological Institute, w^as then the pastor. His mother was Deborah Ami 
Bolton, of Burlington, New York, whose family for .several generations have 
been staunch promoters of Christianity. His only brothers, Albert Judson 
Steelman and Isaac Newton Steelman, are each honored ministers of the 
gospel. Henry Bolton was baptized at Elizabethtown, New York, in 1870. 
In 1873 he entered Colgate- University and was graduated with honors for 
scholarship in 1877. After being graduated from the Hamilton Theological 
Seminary in 1880 he became associated with the Rev. Edward Judson, D. D., 
in the pastorate of the North Orange Church, in Orange, New Jersey, by 
which he was ordained, having been formerly licensed by the church at 
Burlington, N. Y. When Dr. Judson went to New York City Mr. Steelman 
was persuaded to go with him, and continued for two years in the mission 
work which developed into the Memorial Baptist Church. 

In 1883 he became pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Troy, New 
York. After six years of delightful service in Troy he accepted a call to 
succeed the Rev. W. H. Family, D. D., as pastor of the First Baptist Church, 
in Jersey City, New Jersey. But in less than two years, in which nearly one 
hundred were baptized, failing health compelled him to relinquish this field 
for the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, upon 
which he entered in April, 1891. During his ten years of service in Salt 
Lake City the Baptist cause made distinct gains. Three new houses of 
worship were built, in one of which the East Side Church was organized, 
while the First Church retained the other two for its mission work. In 
February, 1901, Mr. Steelman became pa.stor of the Woodland Park Baptist 
Church of St. Paul, Minn. 
(531) 




urn. nmm i. iTEai^i, i. l 



RELIGION AN INWARD LIFE. 533 

XLV 

EELIGIOX AX IXWAED LIFE* 



By Eev. Henry Bolton Steelman^ M. A._, 
Utah 

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being." — Acts 17: 28. 

^ ^ T X God we live^ and move, and have our being.'^ Thus Paul, 
1 at the beginning of the first century, addressed the astute 
Athenians. At the close of the nineteenth century Herbert Spen- 
cer, voicing the results of modern inquiry, echoes the same thought ; 
for he says : "Amidst all the mysteries by which we are surrounded 
nothing is more certain than that we are in the midst of an infinite 
and eternal energy from which all things proceed/^ When the- 
ology and science leave that which is superficial and seek that 
which is fundamental, they find themselves in harmony, and unite 



*Upon the invitation of the President of the University of Utah, James 
E. Talmage, Ph. D., who is also a leading expounder of Mormonism, this 
sermon was preached on the commencement occasion, June 7, 1896, in the 
Mormon Assembly Hall, at Salt Lake City, to a congregation of three 
thousand, the great majority of whom were Latter Day Saints. 

The Mormons believe themselves to be, first of all, a religious people. 
Tlieir men, almost without exception, have been ordained to the "Aaronic" 
or "Melchisedic" priesthood, and two thousand of them are almost con- 
stantly "on a mission" outside of Zion. Religion enters, professedly, into 
all their affairs; the dance, their universal pastime, is opened with prayer, 
and '"Holiness to the Lord" is the motto emblazoned upon the sign of their 
mammoth Mercantile Institute. But Mormonism, despite its pretensions, 
fails to contribute to the generation or development of vital piety. With 
them obedience to the authority of their pri&sthood and submission to their 
ecclesiastical ritual are fully sufficient to guarantee entrance into the 
celestial glon.'. The result, inevitably, is the husk of religion without the 
kernel — irreligion in fact, and a growing company of scoffers. 

As these people regard themselves the sole possessors of the last and 
best word in religion through which and through whom alone full salvation 
can be obtained, and as their community life, speaking generally, shows 
the legitimate fruit of gross standards and religious formalism, this com- 
menccTnent occasion seemed most opportune to present to them the subject 
of religion from the standpoint of an inward power, the fruit of which is a 
pious heart and a transformed ]ife. 



534 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

their voices with the poet of humanity who sang in the Hebrew 
tongue three millenniums ago: "All my fountains are in thee." 

The spirit of scrutinizing inquiry, which is stimulated in higher 
institutions of learning, cannot be circumscribed by the shadowy 
boundaries of philology or the known limitations of exact science; 
there are questions of deeper import than the derivation of words 
and of wider sweep than the circuit of the stars. What of our 
origin yesterday, our continuance to-day and our hope for to-mor- 
row? How shall one who bears about with him the conscious- 
ness of superior possibilities attain to his highest well-being? The 
text gives the only answer. God is the secret source and succor 
and crown of every life. Ultimately, therefore, religion is the one 
essential and vital and all-inclusive question. 

We are not surprised that the instinct for religion is found to 
be an essential part of human nature. It has been declared, and 
never confuted, that while there may be towns without laws or 
coins or literature, no one ever yet has seen a people without some- 
thing that answers to a God and religious services. A man's re- 
ligion, however false it may be, has an element about it which 
fastens it upon his heart. His religious beliefs may be a mass of 
superstition, but he holds them sacred, and for them he will suffer 
all things. This spirit of sacrifice is especially true of Christians. 
Men who have experienced in their hearts the love of the Saviour, 
and who, through faith in him, are conscious of the forgiveness 
of sins, of peace with God, adoption into his family and life ever- 
lasting, will not surrender their faith or deny that which to them 
is better than life, the blessedness of communion with heaven. 
Their persecutors have dragged them at the heels of wild horses, 
laid them upon red-hot gridirons, pulled off the skin from their 
flesh piece by piece, wrapped them in skins, and daubed them with 
pitch and set them up in the emperor's garden at night to burn. 
But the more they were hunted, the more they pressed to the judg- 
ment seat and asked to be permitted to die for Christ. In view of 
such courage as this, such unfaltering faith and unswerving pur- 
pose and sublime heroism, religion at once sweeps into the place 



EELIGIOX AX IXWAED LIFE. 535 

of commanding interest, and he -u-ho regards it henceforth with 
contemptuous disdain would as well spurn the yerv sunlight. 

There are discouraging thin^ about religion. Multitudes of 
devoted men and women have been mislead by false prophets who 
have brought them imder the strange spell of dark and abominable 
superstitions; various generations also have stoned their prophets 
and killed those whom the Lord has sent imto them. But religion, 
as a fact of the most virile stamp, has persisted nevertheless; the 
towering mass of delusions and superstitions has not crushed it. 
And at this moment, right in the blaze of latter-day light, there 
is no phenomenon more intricately and essentially interwoven 
with every phase of civilization and human progress. Xever was 
the religious life more intense and throbbing with energ}' than it 
is to-day among the most intelligent and progressive people in the 
Tvorld. The one ambition of tens of htmdreds of the brightest 
and best in our institutions of learning, both East and West, is 
to be a herald of the cross, that glorious s}Tnbol of the religion 
which is destined to be universal. This then is true that in the 
closing decades of this nineteenth century the phenomenon of re- 
ligion, holding the place which it does in modern life, makes a 
supreme demand upon the intelligent and sympathetic attention 
of every earnest-minded student, even though he be not very re- 
ligious. To this superlative subject you, who are the represen- 
tatives of TTtah's best young men and yoimg women, are sum- 
moned. With your best endeavors you are to separate the ore 
from the dross, the incidental and provincial from the essential 
and universal. In this day of religious parliaments there is no 
subject of greater fascination or of more profound concern. 

True religion, in its essential nature, is so extensive and inten- 
sive that it may exist apart from any symbol or in connection with 
the most varied symbols ; it cannot be compressed into any set mold 
of formal ceremony or creedal confession. Two men may be in 
possession of the verity and yet each reject the symbol which is 
sacred to the other. In the long list of notable men whose piety 
has enriched the world there are illustrious names representing 
creeds which are regarded as mutually destructive. Eomanism 



536 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and Protestanism in many things, are at sword^s points dog- 
matically, but Protestants will always be singing the hymns of 
Boman Catholic prelates ; the Calvinistic author of "Eock of Ages" 
could denounce the doctrines of the Arminian author of "Jesus 
Lover of My Soul/' but each tells of a religious life that springs 
from the same fountain-head. Eomanist, Protestant, Calvinist, 
Unitarian, each may be afraid of the other's philosophy and in 
opposition to his theology and yet worship the same God "in spirit 
and in truth." The forms of religion are always inadequate, often 
misleading, sometimes degrading. To the failure to discriminate 
between the inner life of religion and the unnatural, grotesque, 
often narrow and gi'oss forms, in which the ecclesiastics have 
sought to express it, is largely due the skeptical literature of this 
and preceding centuries. Voltaire launched his satirical sneers 
not at the sweet and righteous teachings of Jesus, but at the cur- 
rent abominations of belief and the empty and meaningless forms 
of the ruling hierarchy. Ceremony and specific creed have their 
rightful place, but it is always secondary. They should spring out 
of the inward religious life which alone can interpret and assimi- 
late them and give them power. True religion cannot be meas- 
ured by the amount of ceremony or determined by the process of 
addition; it is infinitely more than our dogmatism which to-day 
essays to compass the Almighty, but which to-morrow may be 
found in the world's museum as a strange relic of the past. In 
its essence it is neither mechanical nor creedal, but vital. It is 
a process of life, the life-throb, as it pulsates from the soul's deep- 
est fountain. 

A great theologian defines religion as the life of God in the 
soul of man. Paul says, "xVlive unto God"; Jesus says, "Born 
from above." True religion is life in the higher realm of spirit, 
the life eternal. Just as in nature, it is first the ^Holade, then the 
ear, then tlie full corn in the car" ; so with man ; it is first the phy- 
sical, then the mental, and, last of all, the spiritual, and only with 
the unfolding of the spiritual do we begin to realize the true bless- 
edness of living. One may enjoy his physical life to the full; he 
may know the exhilaration of mental growth and the intoxication 



RELIGION AN INWARD LIFE. 537 

of mental achievement ; but when, in the fullness of time and in re- 
sponse to the leading of God, we begin to live in onr spirit and 
feel the first throb of that new life as it thrills in the centre of our 
being, the experience is transcendent. The deepest longings of the 
sonl begin to be satisfied. Where clouds and thick darkness were, 
new light begins to da^wn, and presently the sun bursts forth in 
glory. Where before was dread and fear and disquiet almost to 
despair, now there is hope and joy and peace — a hope which "mak- 
eth not ashamed," "joy unspeakable and full of glory," "peace that 
passeth understanding," yea, that floweth broad and deep like a 
mighty river. The heavens seem to drop down with love. We 
find ourselves communing with an unseen presence, most holy, most 
blessed, most loving, in whom we find absolute repose. This is 
the experience of true religion; it is God coming into the inner 
sanctuary of the soul; it is the soul coming into harmony with 
God. And this is life. Adapting the language of science, the 
spiritual organism of the soul is in correspondence with its essen- 
tial environment; and this environment is the "infinite and eter- 
nal energy from which all things proceed" — God, "in whom we 
live, and move, and have our being." 

How is this life obtained? ISTot by submission to any ceremo- 
nial or by the acceptance of my special dogma or yours. But, see ! 
Setting to work to explain our new experiences, we first theorize, 
then dogmatize, and then, although only human, we label our specu- 
lations "Orthodoxy"; we build our little ecclesiastical house, and 
imagine that only by entrance thither can light and life be found. 
But the Almighty and infinite God laughs us to scorn, and when- 
ever or wherever a soul is ready to receive it he dispenses his light 
and life with unlimited munificence. We hurl our anathemas at 
those who do not pronounce our shibboleth of orthodoxy, and even 
appeal to heaven, saying, "Lord, he followeth not after us"; but 
God, speaking from heaven, his dwelling-place, declares that he is 
"no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God 
and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, whether he be a 
Jew or Gentile, Greek or barbarian, Scythian, bond or free." 

Friend, is this life you.rs? Have you had an experience of its 



538 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

thrilling, inspiring, and uplifting power? Surely you will make 
it your first concern. It will purify your emotions, quicken your 
perceptions, strengthen your reason, rectify, and energize your will, 
fill you with unquenchable hope, give you an outlook beyond the 
prison wall of earth's horizon, and bring into the whole realm of 
your individual life an enlargement and enrichment ineffable. 
What we need, to make life worth living, is this higher life of the 
soul. N'o modern revelation of the map of the future, with its 
kingdoms and glories, is for a moment to be compared with the 
revelation in our hearts to-day of the spiritual life. And it may 
be yours, 0, man, whosoever thou art and wheresoever thou dwell- 
est. The way is not shrouded in inscrutable mystery; it is not 
guarded by any secret initiation or priestly rite. God is the giver 
through his Spirit, and he is willing to give the Holy Spirit to 
whoever asks him. "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall 
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Follow the leading 
of the Spirit; for "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they 
are the sons of God ; if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint 
heirs with Christ." How can any one have more? "All things 
are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 

This higher life of the Spirit-led man, this true religion, has in 
it possibilities of unspeakable blessing to the whole human race 
for this present world. It has an outward expression which there 
is no mistaking, a livery of heaven, the monopoly of which heaven 
gives to no class of people. And as every one here present knows, 
if he has had an experimental acquaintance with true religion, its 
sign manual is love. "Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs 
of thistles; by their fruits ye shall know them," and the fruit of 
religion is love. Jesus says: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself"; and again, "A 
new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." 
Paul says : "Love is the fulfilling of the law" ; and again, "Though 
I speak with the tongues of men and angels, though I have the 
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and give my body to 
be burned, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or 



RELIGION AN INWAED LIFE. 539 

a tinkling cymbal." Without love all this goes for naught as an 
expression of religion : "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for 
God is love." The distinguishing feature of the new life is the 
divine spirit of love, persistent, pervasive, and unconquerable, 
which, like a fountain of living water, overleaping every boundary, 
flows to all with perpetual blessings. Henceforth, the two great 
commandments which summarizes the Decalogue are written, as 
with God^s finger, upon the tablet of the heart. Shall one curse 
God, shall he lie, or steal, or defraud his neighbor? Xo, verily; 
and not simply because the prohibition is found in the Book, but 
because these things do the uttermost violence to his new life of 
love. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 

What a revolution, reformation, regeneration would the preva- 
lence of these graces avail to make — morally, socially, politically, 
yea, even ecclesiastically, in this world of ours I For self-seeking 
and unholy ambition, for insult and retaliation, oppression and 
wrong, which, having possessed individuals, families, and nations, 
have so far played such a part in the tragedy of the world, there 
would be place no more forever. This mighty transformation must 
come. Exactly this is involved in the program of Jesus who, as 
the world's greatest seer and only Saviour, taught us to pray : "Thy 
kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." But 
this great achievement, of which the prophets and poets of every 
age have spoken, can never be wrought by force of arms or legisla- 
tive power, but only by the touch of life as it is communicated 
from heart to heart. And every soul that is alive in the Spirit is 
ordained of God, apart from all human ordinance, to be a centre 
and source of life to others. 

For this great work of hastening the kingdom of life and love 
to its earthly culmination, are you available? During these years 
of preparation for life have you not somewhere, oh, young man and 
young woman, in some solemn hour, consecrated all your God-given 
powers to the highest service? Then let the Lord God of heaven 
speak thy spirit into life; let him endow it abundantly with that 
rich and manifold grace which is peculiarly its own. Only thereby 



540 AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

can your pledge be fulfilled. And then, though your future ca- 
reer be ever so humble in the sight of men, God will radiate it 
through and through with glory, as it ministers to that coming 
time when "nations shall beat their swords into plough-shares and 
learn the arts of war no more; when, instead of the thorn shall 
come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the 
myrtle tree; when the mountains and hills shall break forth into 
singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands ;'^ when 
universal peace and righteousness and love shall prevail among the 
sons of men who will also be the sons of God. 

Of what I have sought to say this is the sum : that because of the 
essential relation of religion to humanity, for time as well as eter- 
nity; because of the enlargement which its possession brings to the 
individual and the blessing to the world which results from its ex- 
tension, there is no subject which has so great a claim upon our 
life. It is worthy of the highest attention and the supremest en- 
deavor. 



HERMAX JOSEPH POWELL was born January 30, 1864, and with three 
brothers and three sisters was raised on his father's farm at lonio, Mich. 
To these western forests his parents had come in the early forties from 
Holland Patent and Steuben, Oneida county, N. Y., whither their parents 
had come in youth from Lanesborough, Mass., and Middletown, Conn. 

His boyhood was very busy with farm work and books. At the opening 
of his high-school course his hope of several years was fulfilled by baptism 
into the fellowship of the lonio Baptist Church. He graduated as A. B. 
from the University of Michigan in 1886. During these eight years he had 
been active and faithful in many lines of Christian work, for the last year 
being president of the University Students' Christian Association. 

The first year in theological study was spent at Newton Center. The 
Sunday work was in the school of the Ruggles- Street Church of Boston. 
After a year's fruitful service as acting pastor at Spring Lake, Mich., where 
he was ordained October, 1887, came two other years of school work under 
other stimulating teachers — in the seminary at Morgan Park, now 
Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Here he graduated as B. D. 
April, 1890. 

During the middle year he preached in the Wabash- Avenue Mission of the 
First Baptist Church, Chicago. It has since become the Calvary Church. 
The four months' vacation following were spent in Minnesota with a church 
that had been reopened by Dr. H. C. Mabie and Deacon Hidden at Monticello. 

On September 4, 1889, he married Miss Frances C. Lennox, of Saginaw, 
Mich., a graduate of that year from Michigan University. She has since 
been a true helpmeet, both as cheerful home-maker and beloved church- 
worker. 

In May, 1890, began a pastorate of four and one-third years at Creston, 
Iowa, a railroad to^vn of 8,000 people. These years were marked by hearty 
love, extensive church repairs, payment of a troublesome debt, trebling of 
the membership, baptism of one hundred and twenty- five converts, and 
the organization of the young people's work with Christian culture courses, 
and the systematic activity of a generous and beloved church. 

Resigning to recuperate from nervous exhavistio.n, he spent the winter 
of 1894-1895 in the delightful hilLs of Jamaica, West Indies, and on his 
return settled with the Eastern- Avenue Church of Joliet, 111. He labored 
with this royal people until February, 1897; but soon found that his health 
had not been fully restored and felt obliged to leave so soon a pastorate of 
joy to the minister and quiet, substantial growth of the church in numbers 
and spiritual life. During the second year this church paid their hea^y 
"floating" debts on their splendid house of worship. 

Then followed two summers on the old home farm, a year in Washington 
and California, three months tenting in the Cascade Mountains and at 
Manitou. In January, 1900, encouraged by increased strength, he gratefully 
began the pastorate of the church at Carlsbad, Xew Mexico, hoping to 
find continued help in the dry, sunny climate. 

Here, as heretofore, he has had considerable responsibility in the associa- 
tional and other denominational work. 
(541) 




I. UEumm I reWELL i. k 



RECIPROCITY. 543 



XLVI 

EECIPEOCITY— EIGHTS AND DUTIES ACCOKDING TO 
THE GOLDEN EULE 



By Eev. HERMAiq^ Joseph Powell, B. A., 
New Mexico 

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets." — Matthew 7 : 12. 

^^'T^HE millennium would be near at hand/' says Dr. Oliver 
1 Wendell Holmes, "when lawyers would take what they 
would give and doctors give what they would take." This is a con- 
crete expression of the text: All things therefore whatsoever ye 
would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them; 
for this is the law and the prophets. 

Jesus states the sum and substance of the second table of the 
law, the essential teaching of the prophets of the old covenant and 
the new. This one sentence is the gist of ethics, a handy manual 
of morality, a principle more convenient than a pocket cyclopedia 
or vest-pocket dictionary of duties. 

It is the true treaty of reciprocity to be ratified by the senate of 
man's judgment and conscience and executed by his will. It is 
a greater triumph in diplomacy than that of any statesman or 
party ; as much greater as mind than matter ; as conduct, character, 
and spirit than coffee, sugar and spices. 

But though it looks fair and square, some say it is visionary and 
impracticable. "Does it mean?" one says, "that I am to give the 
drone and drunkard money for their own real injury, the 
criminal freedom to commit crime, the wilful child liberty to spoil 
himself?" Certainly not. The Master presupposes that the de- 
sires are good. It is a matter of need and help, not whim and 
wish. 

Some such excuse may be given as a pretext to quiet an awak- 
ening conscience, but our real difficulty lies on another side. Our 
selfish human nature insists on rights, rather than delights, in du- 



544 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ties. It is pleasanter to live in one hemisphere of truth and forget 
the other one. We seem so much nearer to ourselves than other 
people do. 

Then the histor}^ of human progress shows that this emphasis is 
natural. The battle for ages has been for man's rights. We justly 
honor the barons of England who forced the hand of the tyrant 
John to sign the Magna Charta. It declares and insures rights; 
it marks an epoch in the history of freedom. Our Declaration of 
Independence marks another triumph. Thus through the centu- 
ries heroes have, with sturdy blows, been breaking human shackles. 
It is well that we revere the names of our Washingtons and Han- 
cocks, Adamses, and Jeffersons ; that our government carefully pre- 
serves, in a secure vault, the faded original Declaration of amaran- 
thine glory ; that Philadelphia honors herself in honoring the fath- 
ers by cherishing the old hall, a cradle of liberty, and the bell that 
sounded forth the birth of the daughter of freedom. A visit to the 
spot or picture of the scene stirs loyal blood and quickens patriotic 
fervor. This document declares our rights to be inalienable. They 
are protected by constitutions, by written and unwritten law. The 
motto of one of our great commonwealths announces: ^^Our liber- 
ties we prize, our rights we will maintain." It has been the spirit 
of the age. Equally great triumphs have been won in the religious 
world. Witness the history of the reformation in Switzerland, 
Germany, England, and Scotland. Immortal are the names of 
Huss and Luther, Wyclif, and Knox. What a glorious record of 
our own denomination in this mighty march, bloody battle and sig- 
nal victories of truth ! The rivers and the commons, the jails and 
the whipping posts of Europe, Virginia, and ^ew England tell the 
story of the cost of victory. But soul-liberty, freedom of conscious 
is worth it. 

These results are the logical and true outcome of Jesus Christ's 
doctrines of the worth of man and the right of personality. But 
this is not the whole of his teaching. We are in danger of making 
a one-sided, unbalanced development. Normal individualism is 
apt to degenerate into abnormal selfism. There is need to empha- 
size the other side, altruism, otherism. This is the more import- 



EECIPEOCITY. 545 

ant, tLe primary, basal truth. The spirit of love, service, self-sac- 
rifice shows the essential nature of the religion of him who came 
not to get, but to give, not to be served, but to serve, not to claim 
rights, but to yield them, even to give his life for the lost. The 
Great Teacher would have us emphasize love more than liberty, in- 
terdependence rather than independence. 

The reason such glorious successes have been achieved for human 
liberty, without the loss of the greater truth, is that the struggle 
has not been all selfish. The declarations insist on other's rights 
also; the Cromwells have fought for God's glory; our Fathers 
sought first God's kingdom. They thus escaped a French reign of 
terror. The N^ational Assembly of France in 1789 did not heed 
Gregoire's warning, as he counseled: "Write at the head of the 
Declaration the name of God or you establish rights without du- 
ties, which is but another thing for proclaiming force to be su- 
preme." The result was natural and necessary. 

We think readily enough of our rights and the other man's du- 
ties. But have we, have I all the rights and they or you all the 
duties? This is an unnatural and unjust monopoly. We recog- 
nize the application of the principle to our neighbor's relations to 
us ; how about our relations to our neighbor ? 

George McDonald forcibly teaches this lesson in the words of 
the Uncle to Wilfred Cumbermed: "Don't always be thinking of 
your rights. There are people who consider themselves very grand 
because they can't bear to be interfered with. They think them- 
selves lovers of justice when it is only justice to themselves they 
care about. The true lover of justice is one who would rather die 
a slave than interfere with the rights of others. To wrong an- 
other is the most troublesome thing in the world. Injustice to 
you is not an awful thing like injustice in you." 

So it is that one is harmed worse in harming others than in 
others harming him. It is not what you owe me, but what I owe 
you ; not my dignity, but your deserts ; not my rights and. your du- 
ties, but your rights and my duties that claim my chief attention. 
Tolstoi gives a forcible translation of the text, when he says : "The 
least complicated and shortest rule of morals that I know of is this : 



546 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Get others to work for you as little as possible and work yourself 
as much as possible for them; make the fewest calls upon the ser- 
vices of your neighbors, and render them the maximum number of 
services yourself." 

Jesus teaches us to see the other man's side, which is so easily 
overlooked. And then he adds generosity to justice, love to equal- 
ity. For the text does not say we are to do what others have done, 
but what we would have them do, i. e., not after they do it, but 
before. We are to give before we take; to go our half of the way 
first, to give the help of neighbor, friend, and brother before ask- 
ing for it; to prize the other man's liberties and maintain the 
other man's rights before our own. This is the Christian princi- 
ple, though like the Beatitudes, it cuts across the grain of worldly 
impulses and ambitions. 

Acknowledging then this duty, let us notice some practical ap- 
plications. Why is it that those who say Christianity is not prac- 
tical fail to read and practice this precept? It suits one's needs 
too well to suit his tastes. Even Bunyan, the apostle of grace, 
says: "The heart of religion is the practical part." Our Master 
accepts the challenge of the world: "What workest thou?" He 
taught and lived a working religion. Let us follow in his steps. 
"Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?" 
Loving, ye will obey. How great is the little word "do." Jesus 
does not say dream about and theorize, but do. Yes, "it is our 
theory and desire" ; is it our purpose and practice ? 

This practical principle is not only operative, but, personal. It 
is not a glittering generality, but a pointed personality. The Mas- 
ter's truths fit like tailor-made coats, for he knows the measure of 
our nature and needs. As indicated above, he speaks not to your 
neighbor, but to yourself ; no, to myself. 

Each one is prone to think himself an exception, and the only 
exception to the laws of health, business, society, to all moral 
requirements. "All men think all men mortal but themselves." 
Our system of religion and social astronomy is Ptolemaic. The 
world circles around me. As each I claims to be a centre, confu- 
Bion results. It is the chaos of selfishness. All must make pe- 



RECIPKOCITT. 547 

ciiliar allowances for me. But the Saviour says we should do like- 
wise for them. If each were an exception, where would be the 
rule? 

Then this practical personal principle is universal in its scope. 
*^A11 things'^ and ^'whatsoever ye would"' are the Masters words. 
Some things are easy and pleasant in our line, according to our 

strong habit or favorite virtue, but others ? "All things," 

says Jesus. 

Thoughts come within its range. We wish others t-o think hon- 
estly, even charitable, of us ; we beg that they be — 

"To our faults a little blind. 
To our virtues ever kind. 

Let us give them the same confidence and kindness. We do not 
desire to be judged by our worst selves, by the accidental or ap- 
parent. We deny that others have the authority or ability to 
judge us. They cannot have either the perfect and universal 
standard or sufficient knowledge of facts or motives. Do we? 
Can we? Many are judged as misers who are self-sacrificing phi- 
lanthropists like Ian Maclaren's Samuel Dodson. Some are called 
cold and selfish who are reserved and retiring. If we are mis- 
judged by others, may not others be by us? Let us put ourselves 
in their place and give them the benefit of the doubt. Others 
lack charity so much. Do we ? Said the Quaker to his wife : ''^All 
the world is a little queer save me and thee, and sometimes I think 
thou art a little queer.*' 

Dr. Hamlick, of A^ienna, tells of having asked Schumann how 
he got on with Wagner. '^'Xot at all,*' he replied; ^Tie talks at 
such a rate I can't get a word in edgeways." Shortly after this Dr. 
Hamlick met Wagner and put a similar question to liim about 
Schumann. "I can't get on with him at all," replied Wagner : '"he 
just looks at me with a vacant stare, and never says a word." 

"0 wad some power the giftie gie us to see oursel as ithers see 
us," and see others as we wish them to see us, ever with love's eyes. 
Tor love is not blind; love only can see. We need this truth in 
the church. The Scotchman needed it who, when asked of the 
prosperity of his kirk, said (to give the English) : "'We're getting 



548 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

on pretty well now in peace and harmony. We have turned out 
all but myself and Jane, but sometimes I have grave doubts of 
Jane's orthodoxy .'' How of us Baptists? Yes, brothers and sis- 
ters, it requires much of the spirit of Christ to allow others full 
liberty to think and believe for themselves and to respect them 
for it. LelE us rise in practice to this high plane with Eoger Wil- 
liams. It is our duty as well as our doctrine. 

Eobert J. Burdette tells of loving our neighbor so well that we 
would have him look with our eyes and think with our mind, and 
adds : 

"I love him so, his ways I'd fix 
In trade, religion, politics; 
His thoughts, his deeds, his aim'S, in fine, 
I'd shape to harmonize with mine. 

Ah, would he let me love him so. 

How smoothly all our plans would go ; 

In everything beneath the sun 
I and my neighbor would be one. 

But oftimes, when I sit with him 
And note his humor, sweet or grim, 

With disappointed heart I see 
My neighbor is in love with me. 

"Judge not one another, but judge this rather that no one put 
a stumbling-block in his brother's way.'' "A little watchfulness 
over ourselves," Epictitus long ago said, "will save a great deal of 
watchfulness over others." 

Our speech is also to be regulated by this rule, its motive, man- 
ner, and matter. The result is golden speech and golden silence 
in the parlor and at the sewing circle, in the office and at the loung- 
ing place. The jargon of hasty, harsh, hard words, of gossip, 
slander, backbiting, as well as other lying and profanity, would give 
place to the sweet symphony of peace, kindness, helpfulness, and 
love. What a happy picture of heaven, "where this strife of 
tongues hath ceased." Only then can angel harps and seraph songs 
be heard. 

This principle is the secret of good manners. Planted in the 
heart, it bears sweeter and more abundant fruit than all the books 



RECIPROCITY. 549 

of form and etiquette, for selfishness, more than ignorance, breeds 
coarseness. It is more practical because it goes to the depth of 
man's being and reaches every nook and corner of his life. It is 
the motto for drawing-room and kitchen, for reading-room and 
hotel, for the street car and the steamer deck. Such curious con- 
duct is often seen when supposedly well-bred people are off their 
guard. One does not have to be a gentleman in the smoker or 
when no ladies are present, thought the relieved clubman. What 
a contrast with Paul living out the twelfth of Eomans, following 
in the steps of Jesus, who kind, forbearing, gentle, is the finest, and, 
as the poet Decker says, "the first true gentleman that ever 
breathed.'^ Love supplants the selfishness of thoughtlessness and 
indifference with genuine politeness. 

Thus friendship also is glorified. For this is not the utili- 
tarian relationship of Bacon, but the more useful, the true and 
beautiful fellowship of those who, like David and Jonathan, are 
knit together by love, not self-interest. The friend is thoughtful 
and tender, helpful and generous, as he expects his friends to be. 
He is willing to make allowances and make advances. He has an 
instinct for detecting the hearts that are waiting for the warm 
sunshine of May. Love has the genius of tactful help. It opens 
the buds of the best that is in us. "If you have a friend worth 
loving, love him and let him know you love him." 

This same principle dominates the family life, and makes the 
home sweet and beautiful. Thoughtfulness of needs and feelings 
replaces self-absorption and forgetfulness. It means the reform 
of one's own wife's husband or husband's wife; sympathy of one's 
own children's parents and obedience of the parent's children. 
What if mothers should forget or fathers fail to provide ? 

Strangers and enemies even reap the benign influence of the 
text. Sinners love those who love them and do good to those who 
do good to them. What is the credit? But they justify them- 
selves in repaying evil in the same coin. But Christ says do good 
even to him that does you wrong, repay evil with good. Here is 
the originality of the Master's teaching. The text differs from 
similar words of three Jewish rabbis and of Isocrates and Confu- 



550 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

cius in being positive, not only negative, in teaching to do good, 
not only refrain from wrong. But then it is universal, including 
all men. Aristotle teaches such treatment of friends, but Jesus 
alone rises to this breadth of brotherhood. So Paul acknowledged 
a debt to those who had injured him, yielded liberties, waived 
rights, sacrificed everything but his conscience to save men. In 
this, man's acts are God-like, for he is "kind to the unthankful and 
the evil." What if the Father had dealt with us according to our 
deserts? This truly is the principle of missions. What would we 
need if in India or China? The same let us give. Put yourself 
in his place. 

This law of the kingdom should prevail in all the church life. 
In the multiplicity of organizations you may have overlooked the 
Aaron and Hur Club that is pledged to pray for pastor and each 
member and to lend a hand wherever help is needed. Each is a 
committee of one to look up and lift up. Nor do they, after pray- 
ing apart, argue fiercely together, like Lachlan Campbell and his 
pastor. Then there is the Barnabas Brotherhood, noted for large- 
hearted sacrifice and service. Here is the sympathetic hand for 
the weak, the stranger, and the yoimg convert, both for the sus- 
pected Sauls and faint-hearted John Marks. Its welcome is to the 
church as a family, to hearts that have the Good Samaritan motto : 
^^Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual 
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering your- 
selves lest ye also be tempted." The golden rule is the insignia 
of the highest Christian nobility. Humble service is the mark of 
true aristocracy. 

Christ's principle covers every relation in social and political 
life. Our poet-patriot, James Eussell Lowell, taught us the ap- 
plication to this age that boasts of the doctrines of equality and 
fraternity, when he said that true democracy does not mean "I am 
as good as you are, but you are as good as I am." "Your levelers," 
says Dr. Johnson, "wish to level down as far as themselves, but 
cannot bear leveling up to themselves." True socialism does not 
mean sharing the spoils, but giving others their due, not having 
others divide with us by force, if need be, but our freely dividing 
with others. 



RECIPROCITY. 551 

Qiiestions as to the needs and rights of the Cuban and Filipino, 
Chinese and Jew, Negro and Mexican are answered by this text. 
It is more than ''Exhibit A. in the church assets, * * * * strictly 
religious furniture/' as Mark Twain calls it. It obtrudes itself 
into business — no, it belongs there. This golden rule, rather than 
the yard-stick of selfishness, is the measure of human conduct. 
David Harum's motto for horse-trading: "Do unto the other fel- 
ler the way he'd like to do unto you, and do it first/' is too com- 
mon in the business world. "Business is business/' says a New 
Yorker, or "I'm not in business for my health/' says a Californian. 
But health of soul and society is above wealth; and God has rights 
and claims in the world's business. 

Jesus Christ is our Master, and we are brethren. "Ye are mem- 
bers one of another" is a primary truth in political economy. 

The anarchistic cry, "each for himself," is obsolete. Even the 
motto, "live and let live," changes to live and help live. The Master 
is leading us on by paths we may not always know to the helpful- 
ness of fraternity, the co-operation of love. That which is called 
an "iridescent dream" must be fulfilled in the commercial world. 
This sparkling gem of the Christian creed is not a dead crystal, but 
a living germ to produce Christian civilization. The Master 
banishes from his kingdom all the hollowness of pretense and heart- 
lessness of greed. Sharp bargainings, false promises, dishonest ad- 
vertising, mean advantage of the helplessness of weakness or de- 
pendence or ignorance fall short of the golden standard. Ask not 
more than you earn, pay not less than is earned is Christ's teach- 
ing. Character-building of the laborer is above fortune-building 
of the corporation. Man-saving is more than money-saving. Be- 
sides, how can one be saved himself who does not seek to save others ? 
If there be trusts, they are trustees of the privilege of service. 
Knowledge, wealth, power, rank, opportunity mean obligation. 
NoUesse oblige. Life's glory is not gained by greed of gold, but 
by coveting the best gift and grace — the love that serves and sacri- 
fices. We may not always be able to exchange places, but the 
sympathy suggested by the Saviour's work quickens the memory 
of our own experience, the consciousness of our own weakness, and 



552 AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the realization of our neighbor's condition. It is a tonic to tender 
thoughtfulness and the power of heart pushing forth the hand to 
help. 

The working of the golden rule means the golden age. It brings 
harmony and happiness. Heaven's eternal law, this expression of 
the divine nature, is the basis of human well-being. 

Then it is the quickest way to get our rights — giving those of 
others ; and the surest guarantee of one's privileges — securing one's 
neighbors. Giving dues secures dues. Doing duty to others is the 
best way to lead others to do duty to us. Giving begets receiving. 
Action and reaction are equal. 

In general, the world uses us as we use the world. "As face 
answers to face in a mirror, so answereth the heart of man to man." 
The kind face and cheery voice at home or on the street, over the 
counter or in the factory enjoys like response. Frances Eidley 
Havergal sings the truth : 

"'Twill not be fruitless labor, 
Overcome the ill with good: 
Try to understand your neighbor, 
And you will be understood." 

Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye 
judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete it shall 
be measured to you again." This natural truth is the necessary 
law of even divine judgment. Charles Kingsley, in "Water Ba- 
bies," forcefully represents this brighter side by Mrs. "Do-as you- 
would-be-done-by," and the darker by "Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you- 
did." It is a matter of heart, of character, of eternity. 

Our highest ideal of manhood is no longer the mailed warrior 
even when battling for his rights. The man who forgives his 
enemy is greater than he who strikes him. Selfishness is unmanly. 
The engineer and hospital nurse, sacrificing even the natural right 
of self-preservation for lofty duty, the Howards and Livingstones, 
the Judsons and Patons show the glory of life's mission. Napoleon, 
measured by the golden rule, is very small; but his contemporary, 
the cobbler and missionary, Carey, and the island exile of Patmos, 



RECIPROCITY. 553 

John, are the truly great. Complete, noblest manhood is not seen 
in Julius Caesar but Jesus Christ. Have this mind in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the form of God counted it 
not a thing to be grasped (at the loss of man in sin and woe) to be 
on an equalit}^ with God, but emptied himself (of glory and rights) 
* * * becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 
Wherefore also God highly exalted him." (Phil. 2: 5-8. E. Y.) 
Self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice was the life purpose of him 
who came to serve and save. ^'Wlien he was reviled he reviled not 
again : when he suffered he threatened not : but committed his cause 
to him who judges righteously.*' (Peter 2: 23). This is the secret 
of his supreme glory. Following him is our way of life and honor. 
Says Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5: 14-15) : "We exhort 
jou, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, 
support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. See that none ren- 
der unto any one evil for evil; but alway follow after that which 
is good, one toward another, and toward all.'^ But who is suffi- 
cient for these things ? We frankly admit our inability and confess 
our sinful failure to fulfil this duty. It is possible only when we 
have new hearts and true love. Master, thou who art love, teach us ; 
thy docile pupils we would be. Following thee who went about 
doing good, ministering to body and to spirit we would uplift men 
and reveal thyself. Help us to lose our lives of sin and self and 
gain the abundant life of love. Forgive our self-centered, self- 
impelled living: help us to be Christ-centered, love-impelled. Fill 
us full of thine own spirit — the Holy Spirit, that we may delight 
and be strong to do thy will. How manifold is thy grace, how 
rich thy life of love. Help us to love tliee with whole hearted 
love and our neighbors as ourselves. Then we can fulfill the law, 
ior each can say: 

"I have been crucified with Christ : it is no longer I that live, but 
Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh 
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, 
and gave himself up for me." 



554 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XLYII 
SAMUEL IN THE TEMPLE. 



By Lewis Halsey^ D. D., 
Arizona 

"And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the 
ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep." — 1 Samuel 3 : 3. 



T 



HIS verse is a modifying phrase in a long sentence, the lead- 
ing assertion of which is found in the verse following: "The 
Lord called Samuel, and he answered : 'Here am L' " 

We have in the text an incident in the life of a child. Upon 
apparently insignificant events great changes hinge. The revela- 
tion of God to the child Samuel marked the beginning of Israel's 
hmniliation before the Philistines, and pointed forward to their 
great deliverance under the leadership of one whose talismanie 
word was "Ebenezer ! — hitherto the Lord hath helped ns V 

We have the picture of a sleeping child, a little lad reposing in 
the tabernacle near the ark of the covenant, which was so soon to be 
lost to Israel on account of the sinfulness of its defenders. 

The phrase, "ere the lamp of God went out," has puzzled the 
commentators. One of the rabbis says that, though the other 
lamps often went out at night, the western lamp was always found 
burning. It was a symbol of the lamp of love, never extinguished 
in the faithful heart, like the vestal fires of old ever renewed and 
burning. It was only the prophecy of the temple, and not the 
temple itself, where we find the boy Samuel, though Shiloh was 
am.ong the oldest of the Hebrew holy places. The prophet Samuel 
was the great man of his age and nation. He was the son of El- 
kanah and Hannah, a child of many prayers — his name meaning^ 
asked, or heard, of God. When a little lad he was brought by his 
parents to the tabernacle at "Shiloh, and was solemnly consecrated 
to the service of God. There his parents left him, a pupil of the 
priests and imder their care. 




L[ 



LEWIS HALSEY, pastor of the First Baptist Cliurch, Phoenix, Arizona, 
was bora in Trumansburg, New York, January 19, 1843; was graduated from 
the Trumansburg Academy, 1863; Hobart College, 1868; Rochester Theologi- 
cal Seminary, 1872; ordained at Ogden, N. Y., 1872. He was pastor at 
Ogden, 1872-1873; Farmer, N. Y., 1873-1888; Castile, N. Y., 1888-1889; 
Oswego, N. Y., 1889-1896; Phoenix, Arizona, 1896, to the present (1903). 

After leaving college he was for a year professor of Latin in the Oxford, 
N. Y., Academy. He received the degrees of A. B., A. M., and S. T. D. 
from his Alma Mater; is a member of the Theta Delta Chi and Phi 
Beta Kappa fraternities; is Grand Prelate of the Knights Templar 
of Arizona; president of the Arizona Society Sons of the American Revo- 
lution ; president of the Arizona Society Sons of the Empire State ; chaplain 
of the First Regiment, N. O. A. During his pastorate at Farmer, N. Y., the 
number of members increased from 137 to more than 300. At Oswego he 
gave the hand of fellowship to sixty-four new members at one time. Since 
he began his pastorate at Phoenix the number of members has increased 
from 117 to 203. 

Hon. Diedrich Willers, ex-Secretary of State, IST. Y., in his history of the 
churches of Seneca county, speaks of Dr. Halsey as "one of the foremost 
ministers of his denomination in the State," and as "an energizing influence 
in all public movements for the good of the community." 

He has published numerous addresses and poems, and four volumes — 
"History of the Seneca Association," "Taughannock Falls," and "History 
of the West Baptist Church of Oswego." Last June he gave commencement 
addresses at the University of Arizona and at Sioux Falls Baptist College. 
When he left New York State he was a trustee of Hobart College and of the 
Hamilton Theological Seminary. He is now Moderator of the Arizona 
Baptist Association, and president of the Pastors' Union of the city of 
Phoenix. His life has been a busy one. 
(556) 



SAMUEL IJT THE TEMPLE. 557 

Once every year his mother came to visit her boy, bringing to 
him a little coat or mantle, his chief treasure. In New York city 
a little time ago a street waif, picked np by the police, was of- 
fered a good home, and his benefactor, bringing him a new suit of 
clothes, threw away the old ones. Bnt the lad picked up the old 
coat and began cutting a piece from it. 

"What are you doing, my boy?'^ said his new father. He re- 
plied : "1 am cutting a piece from the lining. It w^as my mother's 
dress. It is all I have to remember her by." 

Samuel slept in one of the tents near the tabernacle and ad- 
joining the tent of the high priest, so near that he could hear his 
voice and quickly respond to his call. 

Probably it was his office to trim and care for the lamps in the 
tabernacle and to extinguish some of them at sunrise. It was a 
dark time for Israel, but Samuel's hand was to light the lamp of 
victory. 

Let us consider Samuel's preparation, God's revelation, a nation 
blessed, Samuel was in a good place. A great many people never 
amount to much because of what it pleases them to call their en- 
vironment. It was my "surroundings" when I was a boy. "A 
man is known by the company he keeps," says the old proverb. 
Most men choose their own company and make their own environ- 
ment. Some people always have good neighbors, no matter how 
often they may change their residence. 

Men can stay at home with their wives and children or go to 
the saloon or club-room, wasting their time and talents in self-in- 
dulgence. Women can be ministering angels to their husbands 
and children or can find their chief delight as butterflies of fashion 
in ball-room or theatre. In either case the life chosen brings with 
it its own reward, the consciousness of years well spent, or the re- 
morse of a soul which has worse than thrown life away in the 
pursuit of perishing pleasures. 

A man may be one of "nature's noblemen" if he will; woman 
may be an angel if she will; but now, as from the beginning, the 
tempting devils of uncontrolled desire lead men and women away 
from the peaceful paradise of home into forbidden paths of un- 



558 AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

lawful or unwise indulgence, and soon Eden is lost, never to be re- 
gained. 

Samuel was in a good place, with the right spirit, willing to wait, 
ready to work. Life is a school, and little Samuel was in the right 
place to receive instruction. His parents sent him to the best 
school the nation afforded, and the boy was anxious to improve his 
opportunities. It was Samuel who established the worship of Je- 
hovah, who put to flight the Philistines, who established the cele- 
brated schools of the prophets in which his great successors re- 
ceived their education. 

School is a good place to-day, and the wise parent is he who co- 
operates with the teacher, keeps his children steadily at school, and 
does what he can to lift the school government of his city out of 
the pit of party politics. 

Men say that the minister should not carry politics into the 
pulpit. I say so, as far as party politics are concerned. The word 
has degenerated; has come to have a bad meaning; but when it is 
rightly understood the minister cannot do his duty unless he does 
preach politics. Politics properly pertains to that which concerns 
the best interests of the city or the State, and, using the word in 
that sense, every Christian should be a politician, should vote for 
and advocate the election of men of good record, clean character, 
and recognized ability, as mayor and supervisor and alderman. 
If the caucus comes on the same evening as the prayer-meeting, 
it may be necessary for the voters to attend the caucus as good 
Samaritans rushing to save the commonwealth from robbery and 
from wounds. The time may come when it may be necessary for 
the liberty-loving citizen even to spend Sunday in lifting a long- 
suffering people out of the pit of political corruption and death. 

Samuel learned, in this chapel-school, that the government of 
the family has a great deal to do with the government of the State 
and the political purity of the nation, and no doubt he profited by 
the lesson, one which needs to be learned from generation to genera- 
tion, world without end. 

Not only the school, but also the sanctuary is a good place in 
which to be. Too many people seem to think that the time spent 



SAMUEL IN THE TEMPLE. 559 

in worship is wasted ; at least their actions say so ; bnt do they not 
make a sad mistake? There are members of Christian churches 
who go to the theatre more frequently than they go to the even- 
ing church service. What is the penalty visited by the State upon 
one who gives aid and comfort to the enemy ? 

The question naturally arises. What do these people go to church 
for — to be entertained or to worship God? The church can never 
successfully compete with the theatre or the circus as a place of 
entertainment, and makes a sad mistake when it endeavors to do 
so. The sanctuary is a good place for a man to be. Where a man's 
treasure is there will his heart be also, and where a man's thoughts 
are there his body is likely to be. The man who is regularly in his 
place in the sanctuary honors God, aids his brothers, sets a good 
example before his family and before the world, and strengthens 
the hands of his pastor. The man who wilfully makes a practice 
of staying away sets a bad example before his brethren and the 
world, weakens the church financially and spiritually, and does his 
part to pull down the hands of the pastor. One may say: "The 
pastor should not say that, for he may be accused of saying it from 
a selfish motive I" Somebody ought to say it, and the pastor often 
is obliged to utter such truths, not because it is pleasant to do so, 
but because of the unfaithfulness or the forgetfulness of the breth- 
ren. He would "stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance.'' 
He speaks not alone for himself, but also for the church and for 
those who come after him. Pastors are progressive — in one sense 
at least; their flittings are not always like angel's visits. The pas- 
tor pleads for those who follow him, as well as for himself, that 
they may have not only the prayers of the brethren at their homes, 
but also their presence in the sanctuary. 

The sanctuary is a good place for those who wish to receive God's 
blessing. There his name is honored. There he loves to dwell. 
There he has promised to meet with his people. Samuel found it 
good to be in the sanctuary. You may have a similar experience. 
There, in your place, by the standards; giving and receiving cour- 
age, as you stand shoulder to shoulder with your brethren, you 
will find streng-th in service and growth in grace. 



560 AMEEICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

It is true that — ": 

"All places wherein men have lived and died 
Are holy places," 

but in a special sense, as you have learned by experience, the house 
of God is holy. God sanctifies places as well as persons. That 
place is holy where we draw near to God. While men everywhere 
may worship God as holily as at Jerusalem or Gerizim, yet the Lord 
Christ promised a special blessing to those who should assemble in 
his name, and the wisdom of man cannot improve upon the wisdom 
of him who founded the church which is to be the pillar and ground 
of the truth. The church is a better place than any place of amuse- 
ment, of idleness or of instruction. Here we learn our duty to 
man and to God; here we learn of heaven; here we learn that life 
is given for a noble purpose; that man should do the will of his 
Heavenly Father, and live to serve and save his fellow-man. 

We see, secondly, that Samuel was in this place with a right 
spirit. He was willing to wait. He was ready to obey. Waiting 
is often the hardest work God's people have to do. It is easy to re- 
joice in revival times, but not as easy to rejoice at all times. It 
is easy to sing the songs of the harvest time, but not as easy to be 
always trustful and cheerful when holding the plow or waiting for 
the showers or protecting the growing grain. The seed is mixed 
or the weather is unfavorable, or weevil or potato pests destroy the 
crop, and the farmer is discouraged. 

Happy are they who, like little Samuel, having done their work 
to the best of their ability, can lie down in peace and sleep, know- 
ing that whoever may plant, whoever may reap, God will give the 
increase, and will never suffer to fail the work of those who trust 
in him. 

The apostle writes, "Blessed are they who endure"; it is also 
true that brave are they who endure. It sometimes requires more 
courage to stand fast during a cannonade than to advance in line 
of battle, and perhaps the most severe test soldiers are ever called 
upon to endure is to stand with firm and unshaken ranks when the 
opposing column is rushing upon them with bayonets at the charge. 



SAMUEL IN THE TEMPLE. 561 

The poet tells iis : 

" They also serve who only stand and wait." 

But we need not stand idly waiting. We are to do with our 
might what our hands find to do if our work be but waiting upon 
an old blind servant of the Lord;, vfhose own children ought to do 
that service, but who are faithless to their trust; if it be only to 
light the lamps in the temple of the Lord, or to lie listening for 
the call of the aged one to whom it is our privilege to minister. 

We may show reverence for age; we may read to the blind; we 
may visit the afflicted; we may wait upon the sick. God help us 
to do these duties as he makes them known to us, for the time for 
doing them will soon be past. 

The good scholar listens for the voice of the teacher; the loving 
son longs to learn the will of his father ; the faithful Christian seeks 
to know that he may do the will of his Heavenly Father. 

We must work while the day lasts if we would show love for 
our Father in heaven or for our friends on earth. The night 
Cometh. 

"How many go forth in the morning 
Who never come back at night; 
And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken 
That sorrow can ne'er set right. 

We have careful thought for the stranger, 

And smiles for the sometime guest ; 
But oft for our own the bitter tone, 

Tho' we love our own the best. 

Ah, lips with the curve impatient, 

And brow with a shade of scorn, 
'Twere a cruel fate were the night too late 

To undo the work of the morn." 

To see the reward of trustful willingness to obey we may con- 
sider the after-history of the lad who became, in the hand of the 
Lord, the redeemer and ruler of his people. He warns priest and 
nation of their sins; he leads his warriors to victory over the Phi- 
listines; he rules Israel with justice and holiness, and when his 
sons, like the sons of Levi, refuse to walk in the footsteps of their 



562 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

father and are unworthy to succeed him as judges, he is commis- 
sioned to anoint for Israel their first king. 

We may see in our glimpse of Samuel the child a reason why 
God so gloriously revealed himself to Samuel the man. God mani- 
fests himself (a) to those who are consecrated to him; (h) to the 
humble and the lowly; (c) to those who are teachable and child- 
like in spirit. 

God blesses those who are brought to him in the arms of faith. 
He hears a mother's prayers. He adds his blessing to a father's 
teachings and sanctifies to the saving of the souls of their children 
the examples of his faithful followers. It is true that sons of good 
people do not always turn out well, because when they are young 
their parents, like Eli, restrain them not, but the Lord blesses, to 
the third and fourth generation, the children of those who love him 
and who teach their children to honor him. 

Samuel had been well brought up, had been solemnly dedicated 
by his parents to the service of the Lord, had been brought by 
them to the school of temple service and of the sanctuary, and thus 
was prepared to receive God's blessing. 

Again, Samuel was one of the common people, the child of "poor 
but honest parents." 

Often the rich and powerful are too much absorbed by the world 
and its ambitions to give thought to spiritual things. Now, as 
ever before, not many wise, not many mighty are called. They 
are not sinners. They are high in their own esteem and in the 
esteem of others ; why should they wish to be uplifted ? They are 
so wise that wisdom will die with them, why should they seek 
knowledge ? 

God loves the meek and the lowly; a humble and contrite heart 
he will not despise. If we come to him at all, we must come as 
little children. When the Master was teaching, and the disciples of 
John came to ask for his credentials, he said: "Tell John that to 
the poor the gospel is preached." The common people heard him 
gladly. His birth was announced to those who were watching their 
flocks. Fishermen were his chosen disciples. His gospel is a gos- 



SAMUEL IN THE TEMPLE. 563 

pel of brotherhood, and the most of Christ's brothers are poor in 
pocket if not in spirit. 

Again, God manifests himself to those who are childlike in heart. 
Christ teaches those who are teachable in spirit. The willing and 
the obedient eat the fruit of the land ; the trnstf nl and the teachable 
receive divine instruction. Those who think that they have no 
wisdom often are the most wise in the sight of God. 

Eeverence for age, readiness to receive instruction, willingness 
to obey, these were characteristics of little Samuel, and these are 
the attributes of youth which command the commendation of man 
and the approval of God. 

The self-willed and the self-righteous rush on to destruction; 
the simple, and those who refuse instruction, pass on and are 
punished, but the pure in heart, the clean in life, the loving little 
ones whose souls are filled with holy aspiration, these, waiting ex- 
pectant in the courts of God's house, hear his voice, receive his 
messages, do his will, receive his blessing, and are themselves made 
blessings to others. 



564 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XLVIII 
EZEKIEL AND THE WOED. 



By Eber Arthur Woods, D. D., 
California 

''And the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man prophesy 
against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that 
prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus 
saith the Lord God: Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their owb 
spirit and have seen nothing!" — Ezekiel 13: 1-3. 

EZEKIEL was, perhaps, one of the least of the prophets in gen- 
ins, but he was surely one of the greatest in vision. He lived 
in view of the open heavens. He was among prophets, what Michael 
Angelo was among artists. Vast and colossal in his imagery, ma- 
jestic in his diction, copious in fancy, he often transcends in his 
ideas the powers of language and hence is difficult to understand. 
He gives free scope to his imagination and expands his images; 
crowding with grand conceptions and enriching with exquisite 
touches his magnificent cartoons of prophesy. A firm, unflinching 
and faithful obedience to every word of the Lord was a constant 
habit of his life. With the simplicity of a child and the earnest- 
ness of a hero, he did whatever he was bidden to do. Called to 
do things which he could not understand, to endure that which 
was terrible to flesh and blood, yet he obeyed without question. He 
was bidden to take a tile and portray upon it the city of Jerusalem 
and lay mimic siege to it, and build a fort and cast up a mound; 
bidden to lie down upon his left side and then on his right side for ' 
many days ; bidden to make barley bread in a vessel and eat of it ; 
bidden to cut ofl his hair and weigh it in balances ; bidden to bring 
forth his goods out of his house, in the sight of the people and 
remove them to another place. Things trivial and strange and 
hard, he was commanded to do and these had a divine meaning and 
were signs and witnesses to the people. He acted as well as spake 




11^ 



EBER ARTHUR WOODS, pastor of the First Baptist Church of San 
Francisco, California, was born July 24, 1839, in Homer, Licking county, 
Ohio. He studied at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, until his junior 
year in college, when he entered Madison (now Colgate) University, from 
which he Avas graduated in the class of 1863. He graduated at Hamilton 
Theological Seminary in 1865. 

Dr. Woods was ordained at Little Falls, N. Y., and has since been pastor 
at Fleming-ton, N. J.; Saratoga Springs, jST. Y. ; Stewart- Street Church, 
Providence, R. I.; First Church, Paterson, N. J.; First Church. (M v r 
O. ; First Church, Williamsport, Pa., and the First Church, San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., of which he is now pastor. 

A large number of Dr. Woods' sermons have been published, among them 
those on the following subjects : "Alone Yet Not Alone," '"'Consider 
the Lilies," "God Our Portion," "Christ's Mission and Ours," and also 
an address before the American Inter- Seminary Alliance on "The Three- 
fold Mystery of Christianity," and a tract entitled, "Why I Am a Bap- 
tist." Also papers and addresses before the Baptist Congress on "The 
Attitude of the Church Toward Amusements," "The International Sunday- 
School Lessons," "The Function of the Coming Ministry," "Future Proba- 
tion," and "The Organic Union of Christendom." He has read papers before 
the Ministers' Conferences in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston on "Au- 
thropomorphism," "Augustine the Man and the Theologian," and "Creeds 
and Creed-Building." 

Under his ministry a large and commodious house of worship was built 
in Flemington, IST. J. ; a mission was established and chapel built for what 
is now the Second Church of Saratoga Springs, N. Y. ; the house of worship 
of the First Church of Cleveland, 0., one of the most elegant in the country, 
was erected; a beautiful house of worship was built in W^illiamsport, Pa., 
and in San Francisco the house of worship, having been partially destroyed 
by fire, has been rebuilt. 

Rev. Moses H. Bixby, D. D., of Providence, R. I., writes thus of Dr. Woods : 
"He is a thorough scholar and a sound theologian. He ranks with our ablest 
preachers, and is highly esteemed by a large circle of literary and Christian 
friends. As a writer he is luminous and vigorous; as a preacher, eminently 
Biblical and evangelical; as a pastor, judicious and sympathetic; as a 
friend, true-hearted and generous. He is strongly attached to the doctrines 
and polity of his own denomination, and labors earnestly to promote its 
interests. Mr. Woods takes a deep interest in the great missionary and edu- 
cational movements of the day, and the cause of humanity everywhere finds 
in him warm sympathy and generous support." 

Dr. Woods was for a number of years the secretary of "The Baptist Con- 
gress," and is now a member of the Board of Managers of the Missionary 
Union, and of the General Baptist Convention of California, and also of 
California College. He is the president of the Board of Directors of the 
Pacific Hospital of San Francisco. 

He has received the honorary degrees of "Master of Arts" and of "Doctor 
of Divinity" from Colgate University. 

Two of his brothers were well-known Baptist ministers — Rev. H. C. Woods, 
D. D., superintendent of Missions on the Pacific Coast, who died in 1899, 
and Rev. B, A. Woods, D. D., pastor of the Gethsemane Baptist Church. 
Philadelphia, who died in 1897. 
(566) 



EZEKCEL A^-D THE WOED. 567 

in parables, and these not out of Ms own heart but in strict obe- 
dience to God's commands. At one time the word of the Lord came 
to him; saying. ''Son of man, behold I take away from thee the de- 
sire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet neither shalt thou mourn nor 
weep, neither shall thy tears ran down; forbear to cry and make 
no moTirning for the dead.'^ This command seemed so stern and 
hard; his heart was gushing with husbandly love; the loss of the 
dearest companion of his life was delnging his sonl with grief. Bnt 
even this he endured at God's command without a mnTmur or a 
tear. His words at the time are the words of a martyr: "So I 
spake nnto the people in the morning and at even my wife died, and 
I did in the morning as I was commanded.^' Obedience in word and 
act was the keynote of his life. Obedience when it seemed useless, 
obedience ia the strangest and minntest particnlars, obedience 
thongh it involved self-denial m his dearest affections, even to the 
very crncinxion of his heart. 

On the ceiliag of the Sistine Chapel in Piorae. Michael Angelo 
has pictured the prophet Ezekiel standing with the npper part of 
his body bent forward, the right hand stretched ont as if in the act 
of demonstration, holding in. the left hand an nnroUed parchment; 
it is as if one saw the thonghts chasing each other in his mind. 

One characteristic of Ezekiel's message is that thongh in exile 
in a foreign land and living in a period of disintegration, he points 
to a better time in the fntore for God's chosen people. Eebnktng 
them for their false expectations of deliverance, he severely de- 
nonnces those false prophets who have not received the word of the 
Lord, bnt have prophesied their own heart's desire. 

"And the word of the Lord came nnto me, saying. Son of man 
prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thon 
nnto them that prophesy ont of their own hearts. Hear ye the word 
of the Lord; Thns saith the Lord God; Woe nnto the foolish pro- 
phets that f oUow their own spirit and have seen nothing.^^ 

In the text God speaks to the prophet. God is a person. Men 
often speak of God as impersonal. Impersonal terms are nsed snch 
as Providence, Xatnral Law, First Canse. Bnt withont person- 



568 AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ality there can be no character, and a God without a character is no 
God at all. 

In the Bible, God is always represented as a person. Do not be 
afraid of anthropomorphism; it is truer than pantheism. God 
speaks, he hears, he creates, he destroys, he loves, he pities. Man 
was created in his image and likeness, and personality is a charac- 
teristic of that image. We come to know something of God by 
knowing man. We form our ideas of God^s power, his justice, 
his pity, his love, by knowing these qualities in man. Love is the 
fullest expression of God^s character, for God is love. We know 
what human love is. Take the most perfect example of human 
love; love long continued, sensitive, forgiving, self-sacrificing, and 
raise it to the highest possible intensity, make it infinite, clothe it 
with infinite power, infinite wisdom, infinite holiness, and then we 
say, "that is what God is." God is not a mere abstract principle, not 
a name for the moral order of the universe, not an inscrutable force, 
not merely "a power not ourselves which makes for righteousness," 
he is a person who knows and can be known, who loves and can be 
loved, in whose life we share and in communion with whom we 
can find rest. 

"God is law, say the wise, 
O soul! and let us rejoice, 
For if he thunder by law. 
The thunder is still his voice. 
Speak to him, thou, for he hears. 
And spirit with spirit may meet. 
Closer is he than breathing, 
Nearer than hands and feet." 

Yes, God is a person; omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, 
righteous, holy, merciful, brighter than the light, more patient and 
pitiful than motherhood — the infinite loving Father. 

It was such a God who in the beginning created the heavens and 
the earth. It was such a God who made man in his own image and 
likeness. It was such a God who, on Mt. Sinai, gave to Moses those 
ten living words. It was such a God whose word came to Ezekiel 
and to all the prophets. It was such a God who so loved the world 



EZEKIEL AND THE WORD. 569 

that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish but should have everlasting life. It is such a God 
who speaks to us and whose messengers we are. 

In the text God speaks to man who is his image and child, and 
hence can hear and understand his word. 

The Bible makes frequent allusion to the dignity of man^s nature. 
Created in God's image and likeness and destined for eternal com- 
panionship with him, man bears the signature divine. Great things 
are possible to him. Seasoning which approaches the quality of 
revelation ; service which omnipotence alone can exceed ; love which 
finds its life in self-sacrifice; purity which approximates the holi- 
ness of God. Man's highest endowment is a nature which he 
shares with God, by which communication with God is possible. 
There is that in man which recognizes God's word and responds 
to it. The laws of God and the attributes of his character com- 
mend themselves to man's thought and judgment. I hear the voice 
of God in his word and I know that he is speaking to me. I hear 
the same voice, though less distinctly, in nature, and these voices 
find an echo in my own soul. "I recognize the voice in the echo; 
the echo makes me sure of the voice; I listen and I know." 

In the text we are told that the word of the Lord came to the 
prophet and that word was a message to the children of men. • 

The word of the Lord is God in self-revelation. The infinite, 
the unseen, the unknown God reveals himself when he speaks. In 
the time of the prophets, the word of the Lord came continually to 
men. It came now in dreams and visions, now by angels, now by 
divine illumination. That word finally came by Jesus Christ. "God 
who in many parts and many ways, spake unto the fathers by the 
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." "The 
word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth." 

When John the Baptist was asked, who he was, he replied: "I 
am a voice." So every prophet was a voice by which the word of the 
Lord was spoken. Every true preacher must receive his message as 
a communication from God, and the constant purpose of his life 



570 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

must be to deliver that message clearly, fully, tenderly and uncor- 
rnpted. It is he who has been alone with God, who has seen the 
heavens open, who has heard and is aware of an authentic voice, who 
has caught gleams of things unspeakable; it is he who is com- 
manded to speak to men of his heavenly vision. 

"Why should men listen to the preacher, why heed his message 
concerning the great questions of life unless the word of the Lord 
has come to him ; unless his teaching is introduced by a "thus saith 
the Lord?" The text says, "Woe unto the prophets whom the 
Lord hath not sent, who prophesy out of their own hearts, who 
follow their own spirit and have seen nothing." From having seen 
something, from a genuine knowledge of God, the preacher ftiust be 
able to declare that which he has looked upon and his hands have 
handled of the word of life. That word which has passed through 
the alembic of the preacher's own experience and has become a real 
transaction between himself and God, will always be powerful. 

Every preacher's creed should be like Peter's, of which the Mas- 
ter said, "Elesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but 
my Father who is in heaven." A real creed is a Christian's state- 
ment of what God has revealed to him. The personal element is an 
important part of every creed. Our creeds enlarge as our expe- 
riences and revelations deepen. The creed forms of the early cen- 
turies are like the "arrested growths" of the naturalists. They are 
like earthworks of defense from which the soldiers of Christ have 
advanced or retreated as God's unfolding revelations have demand- 
ed. The end of theology is not yet reached. Obituary is not yet in 
order. Whatever any man has received from the Lord, that the 
world needs and ought to hear. But he who speaks In the name 
of the Lord must not only have a firm conviction of the reality and 
value of the truth he holds, but he must hear the command, "Go and 
tell my people." Before utterance, the word must burn within and 
demand expression by a divine compulsion. Forty-five times does 
the prophet Ezekiel say "the word of the Lord came unto me." It 
came to him continually and it still comes to God's messengers. The 
Holy Spirit still and continually inspires men to speak the things 
of God. There is a Testament newer than the New Testament, 



EZEKIEL AND THE WORD. 571 

for God has not ceased to speak and reveal himself to men. There 
is a Bible older and newer and larger than this sacred book, a Bible 
which includes all God's words to men and his revelations of himself 
to them. 

"Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 
Beside on paper leaves and leaves of stone; 
Each age, each kindred adds a verse to it, 
Texts of despair or hope, of joy or moan. 
While swings the sea, while mists the mountains shroud, 
While thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud, 
Still at the prophet's feet the nations sit." 

The preacher is an ambassador from God to men; he brings a 
message from the King of Heaven and speaks in his name. But 
'Voe nnto the foolish preachers who speak out of their own heart, 
and follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing." Therefore, 
"Thus saith the Lord, because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies, 
therefore behold I am against you, saith the Lord.'' 

The true prophet must have the word of the Lord incarnated in 
his own life. He is to live as well as speak. 

Jesus the Christ was the Logos, the word who was in the begin- 
ning with God and was God. He^ not only spake the word of the 
Lord, but he was that word. He was what he preached. Says Dr. 
Bushnell, "It was not Jesus' look, nor his declamation, nor his fine 
periods, nor yet his precious weight of matter ; but it was the sacred 
exhalation of his quality, the aroma, the auroral glory of his per- 
son. He took the human person to exhale the atmosphere of God, 
that should fill and finally renew creation, bathing all times and 
climes and ages with its dateless irradicable power." The preacher 
of Christ must have in clear vision the outlines of the divine per- 
son, and look into that wonderful face until its lineaments are 
distinct; he must observe the actions of that life until every sphere 
of conduct is illuminated, and he thus learns what our lives should 
be to-day. ISTo man who makes Christ the mere frontispiece of his 
ministry can be a true preacher. Christ must be his Alpha and 
Omega, his theme, his ideal, his inspiration, his joy, and his exceed- 
ing great reward. It is one thing to know about the Lord ; it is quite 



572 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

another thing to know him. It is he who has that intimacy which 
Nathaniel had with the Messiah under the fig tree, who is prepared 
to announce him to the world as the Son of God and the King of 
Israel. 

"First seek thy Savior out and dwell 
Beneath the shadow of his roof 
Till thou hast scanned his features well, 
And know him for the Christ by proof. 

Then potent with the spell of heaven 
Go and thine erring brother gain, 
Entice him. home to be forgiven 
Till he, too, see his Savior plain." 

It was after his resurrection and Just before his ascension that 
onr Lord said to his disciples, "as my Father hath sent me, even 
so send I yon. And he breathed upon them and said unto them, 
^^Eeceive ye the Holy Spirit.'^ Oh, the high calling in this world 
of the man to whom the Lord says "as my Father hath sent me, 
even so send I yon." Is every true minister a Messiah sent as Christ 
was sent to utter the word of the Lord and to have that word incar- 
nated in his life? If, as Milton says, "the life of every true poet 
mnst itself be a poem," must not every trne preacher be an embodi- 
ment of that gospel which he preaches ? If the first question as to 
the gospel is, "What is the word of the Lord ?" the second question 
is — and it follows hard after the first — "who is he who dares claim 
to bring a message from God to man ?" What the preacher is, deter- 
mines in the end the effect of his teachings. He to whom the word 
of the Lord has come, who has tasted and handled the word of life, 
who has been transformed in character by the admission of that 
word into his own soul, — such a hallowed personality becomes a 
sweet channel through which the life-giving spirit of God flows to 
the souls of dying men. When the preacher can say "It is no longer 
I, but Christ who dwelleth in me," when the words of divine love 
come from a Christly character; such words will carry conviction 
and certainly will not fall useless to the ground. He who has seen 
but little, has little to tell. He who has received little has little to 



EZEKIEL AXD THE TVOED. 573 

give. It is Bishop Westcott who said^ ^"Our personal knowledge of 
Grod, his presence with ns and in ms, is more than any endowment 
or rather it includes all endowments in its potency and is necessary 
for all that they may be beneficent/' 

David Hnme^ the skeptic, after hearing John Brown, of Had- 
dington, preach said, "That man means what he says; he speaks 
as if Jesus Christ were at his elbow/-' It is more to be desired than 
anything else in the Christian ministry, that we may have such 
communion with God, such a sense of the reality of eternal things, 
that men shall see that we are intensely in earnest. This earnest- 
ness is not shown in noisy declamation, but in tenderness and 
sympathy. Said W.E. Gladstone to a young minister, ''TToung man, 
with such a theme as you have, you should be ashamed that there is 
not more feeling and enthusiasm and sympathy in your preaching.^^ 

I have read that a certain woman came to an eminent English 
barrister to ask him to plead a case for her. EJuowing that he was 
a man of great learning, and thinking that it was important to make 
a good impression, she prepared what she had to say very carefully, 
thought it out and committed it to memory so that there should 
not be a word misplaced. She then went before the barrister and 
told her story. Her statement of her case was so precise, so icily 
regular, so coldly exact, that when she had finished it, he said to 
her impatiently, "Madam, I do not believe a word you say." She 
was astonished and burst into tears, and then out of the fullness 
of her heart, she told her story again, and then he said, ^^ow I 
believe you," and he won the case for her. In the one case it was art 
and in the other it was heart, and the latter will succeed where the 
former fails. Earnestness and tenderness become a redeemed man 
who in God's name offers redemption to others. He who thus 
speaks from personal experience, possesses an authority which is 
able to convince and master. He speaks with the certitude of 
knowledge: a knowledge gained in communion where angels veil 
their faces and man falls to the earth before the vision of the Eisen 
One. 

TVe are alive as we live in Christ. We are mighty through him. 
Living in his fellowship, walking in his light, encouraged by his 



574 AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

voice, upheld by his arm, soothed by his love, repaid by his smile. 
Let us listen reverently for the word of the Lord, and when it 
comes to ns, let ns declare it lovingly and tenderly to dying men. 
Let "lis in public and in private, in season and ont of season, tell the 
things which God hath done and hath revealed to ns. Let ns preach 
a positive Gospel. "He that hath a dream let him tell a dream,'^ 
but our own word is not a dream but a revelation. "He that hath 
a philosophy, let him tell a philosophy" but onrs is not a philosophy, 
but a message from God to men. He that hath a "wish" or a 
"hope," let him tell it as such, but ours is a divine revelation. 
Chrises words to ns are final and close the case. It is not for ns to 
prove God true, nor to apologize for onr message. It is not for us 
to prop up the cross lest it fall, but simply to point men to it and 
to him who hung thereon. Let us be anxious, not so much for a 
"wider hope" as for a more perfect consecration, a more earnest 
effort and a more sublime faith. Let us have faith in the truth, 
for truth is the thought of God. Let us be optimists. What if 
Judson does labor seven years without a convert; if God has sent 
him, he wants him there and will give him succeses. Let us tell 
the story of that "mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh," 
the gracious offering of an infinite sacrifice — a propitiation for the 
sins of the whole world. Let us with all the earnestness of loving, 
grateful hearts, tell of perfect reconciliation between God and man, 
tell of newness and holiness of life, tell of everlasting salvation by 
him "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." 

With eyes fixed upon the future glory, let us rejoice in hope. Ours 
is not a failing cause. Our divine Lord is with us and all power in 
heaven and in earth is given unto him. 

The brighter days are dawning. I see the eastern sky all aglow 
with the crimson and gold of sunrise. We are in the morning of the 
twentieth century, and as I listen to-night I hear the bugle notes 
of the coming years sounding across the mountains and filling our 
ears and hearts with their sweet music. 

"We are living, we are dwelling 
In a grand and awful time, 
In an age on ages telling, 



ZZIKIZL A^"D THE WORD. STS 

I believe the -hvenTieTli cennirv will be better than the nineteenth 
has been — a cenniry of purer faith, of nobler zeah of tenderer love. 

The time is coming when God will give the heathen to his Son for 
an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a posses- 
sion ; when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the 
waters cover the sea ; when the kingdom of this world shall become 
the kingdom of Christ. But yon and I, my brother; what ^h:.!! — e 
do? Oh that each of us may have a share in bringing a-; y;/: t^is 
majestic consummation. Each in his place, speaking the word of 
the Lord which comes to us. doing the work which he gives us to do, 
with full faith in the caption of our salvation, let us rejoice and 
press forward. Let us not be weary nor discouraged. "We shall 
soon drop out of sight and be forgotten, but the work will go on 
and success is sure. 

'■'Others shall sing the sons. 
Otliers shall right the wrong,. 
Finish what vre begin, 
And all we fail ci. win. 

What matter we or they ? 

Ours or another : ;■;-- 
So the right To:r.'. V- ,aid 
And life the sweeter made. 

Ring, bells in tmreared steeples, 
The ioT of unborn peoples : 
Sound trumpet, far off blown : 
Your tritimph is otir own."' 



576 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

XLIX 
THE LORD'S SUPPEE 



By Alexander Blackburn^ D. D., 
Oregon 

"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the 
Lord's death till he come." — 1 Cor. 11: 26. 

OUR Saviour came to a world where much of the religion con- 
sisted of forms and ceremonies. Ritualism was found among 
Jews and Gentiles, but chiefly among the men of the chosen race. 
God first taught the favored nation by impressive object lessons. 
Temples, priests, offerings, washings, and postures, these all ap- 
pealed to the eye, to the outward man. The Great Teacher would 
set this aside. He would have man worship God, the Spirit, in 
spirit and in truth. But something of the form must remain. 
We need some form to appeal to this natural love of the picture, 
the vivid illustration. Therefore we find all ceremonies condensed 
into two: baptism and the Lord's Supper — one to be at the be- 
ginning of the Christian life, not to be repeated, the other to be 
continued, a perpetual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

Of the Lord's Supper it has been said by Dean Stanley: "Un- 
questionably the greatest religious ordinance of the world, whether 
as regards its almost universal adoption in the civilized world or the 
passions which it has enkindled, or the opposition which it has 
evoked." Through 1900 years it has remained, not always in its sim- 
plicity and purity but in some form. It is the Mass of the Roman 
Catholic, the Holy Sacrament of the ritualist, and the simple Lord's 
Supper of the non-ritual churches. To some the centre of gross 
superstition and error, to all sacred. Whatever may be the con- 
ception of this ordinance in the mind of the participant, all alike 
regard it as in some way bringing them very near to their Lord. It 
is not my intention this morning to treat the subject in any his- 




4 ?): i 



u nm 



ALEXANDER BLACKBURN, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Port- 
land, Oregon, was born on a farm in Laporte county, Indiana. When nine 
years old his parents removed to McDonough county, Illinois. The home 
was one of culture and positive religious life, his father being an elder in 
the Presbyterian Church, and his eldest brother. Rev. Wm. M. Blackburn, 
D. D., being a noted preacher, educator, and author in that church. At 
seventeen he was. fitted for college, but the Avar for the Union attracted 
him, and he iserved three full years in the army. He carries four bullet 
marks from the field at Chickamauga. Returning, he completed the course 
at Monmouth College, Illinois. Converted in his junior year, he joined the 
Presbyterian Church, and after graduation took up the study of law, at 
the same time teaching school and engaging in business in the State of 
Kansas. A Baptist wife set him to studying the Bible, and he became a 
Baptist and was the first one baptized into the church in Emporia, Kansas, 
the church being organized in his house. Soon the call to preach came, 
and he took the full course in the seminary at Chicago, now the Divinity 
School of the University, graduating in 1873. During his student life he 
organized the Baptist Church at Austin, near Chicago, and remained with 
it till 1876. Then he was at Oak Park two years; at Lafayette, Indiana, 
more than nine years; at Lowell, Mass., First Church, five and a half years, 
and in the First Church, Cambridge, Mass., five and a half years. In Novem- 
ber, 1898, the First Church, Portland, Oregon, called him to be pastor 
without having heard or seen him; and moved by a desire to have some part 
in the formation of the religious life of the great Northwest, he accepted, 
and is the happy paistor of a united and prosperous church. Dr. Blackburn 
is pre-eminently a pastor. His preaching is of the practical sort, and 
would not be called eloquent or scholarly. The great aim has been to bring 
souls to Christ, and in every field there have been many converts ; in 
Lowell the average being sixty a year, and that without revival meetings. 
He has been intensely interested in all missionary and educational work, 
and his brethren have honored him with many places of trust. He has never 
aspired to authorship, though his wife, who has made possible whatever 
success he has had, has written two books that have been well received. 
His pen, however, has been much used for the press, both secular and 
religious. Franklin College, Indiana, gave him the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity in 1894. Dr. Blackburn, though a veteran, does not consider him- 
self an old man, and says the only "dead line" he ever "intends to cross is 
the one around the cemetery wliere he may be buried." 
(578) 



THE lokd's suppee. 579 

torical "^ay, liowever interesting it might be to trace the changes 
from the simple breaking of bread and drinking of the ciip^ in the 
days of the Apostles, to the intricate ceremonial of the High Mass. 
The changes were gradual and grew ont of extreme literalism in 
interpretation, and a natural tendency to substitute form for spirit. 
Our sole object shall be to discover the intent of the SaYionr in the 
ordinance, and the precise manner of its observance. 

THE IXTE^s"! OF THE LOED^S SUPPEE. 

(I iise the expression "Lord's Supper/*" because it is scriptural, 
and the terms "eucharist," which means "to give thanks,^^ and "com- 
munion,^' which means "'fellowship/^ and "sacrament,*^ which means 
"an oath,^^ are all of them, both unscriptural and misleading.) The 
Saviour, when he was about to depart, desired to leave with his dis- 
ciples something that for all time would be to them a sign of their 
relation to him. He had placed baptism at the beginning of the 
new life. In this they had witnessed to their death to the old 
sinful life and their coming to a new life. They were buried and 
rose with him. But this was not enough. He desired some visible 
symbol that they should together bear forth : one to be always with 
them. This symbol would signify two things : It would bring him 
to their loyal remembrance, and it would set forth the great cen- 
tral truths of the gospel : "This do in remembrance of me" ; "Te do 
show forth the Lord's death till he come." 

This twofold design in the memorial symbol requires, on the part 
of those who receive it, a careful observance of the form as first 
given. Every regiment of the British army carries the English 
colors. It may be on guard at Windsor Castle, or in India, or Africa, 
or Australia. It may be composed of white men, or yellow men, or 
black men. It may be in war or in peace. Whatever the circum- 
stances, the colors are the same, and to make any change would be 
to insult the English government. It is not a question of utility, 
or convenience, or taste. There is no choice, the only question being, 
is it like the pattern. 

Our sole and only question is, what did Christ do when he said 
to the disciples, "This do?" The symbol may be lost, it may be 
destroyed, it may be neglected, and yet no charge of treason : but to 



580 THE AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

change it, to substitute something else in its place, can never be 
done without insult and mockery. As loyal sons, then, we must 
seek the very thing commanded, and instituted in that upper room 
in Jerusalem. 

Happily we can easily determine what was done. We find that 
on the Thursday of the Passover week Jesus and his disciples gath- 
ered in an upper room in Jerusalem. There they observed the 
Passover meal, during which time Jesus revealed the treachery of 
Judas. The traitor, having received the sop, went out. On that 
table would be unleavened bread, a roast lamb, bitter herbs, and 
wine, twice called the ''fruit of the vine," during the Supper and 
after. The Passover feast was over, and then we are told, in Mat- 
thew, "Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to 
the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the 
cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it, 
for this is my blood of the Few Testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink 
henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it 
new with you in my Father's kingdom." Mark, and Luke, and Paul 
in the eleventh of first Corinthians, give substantially the same 
account. Our duty is to search and know, if possible, what part of 
this is incidental to the occasion and surroundings, and what 
permanent in the ordinance. All agree that the previous 
Passover supper had no permanent relation to the Lord's Sup- 
per, for we find the latter spoken of many times as entirely sep- 
arate from that Jewish feast. The manner of sitting at the table 
was incidental to the place. The number present, the date, all these 
had no permanent place in the observance of the ordinance. Bread 
is always mentioned where there is any detailed description of the 
Supper. Many think this bread should be unleavened, but Paul's 
word in 1 Cor. x: 16: "The bread which we break, is it not the 
communion of the body of Christ," where the word ^^read" or 
"loaf" is the one commonly used for "bread," seems to indicate that 
any bread may be used. The "cup," which was the "fruit of the 
vine," and. may or may not have been fermented, is always present. 
Scholars say that this was always mixed with water at the Pass- 



I 



THE lord's supper. 581 

over meal; if so^ water was in the wine^ but^ like the leaven in the 
bread, it is not a necessary element of the Lord^s Supper. 

"Bread^' and the "friiit of the vine^^ are the permanent elements. 
Those present were the "eleven in the gospels." The "church" 
in Corinthians, and the ^T3rethren" in other places ; that is, believers 
who had openly confessed their faith in baptism and church fellow- 
ship. There was always a blessing and thanksgiving, and all ate 
the bread, and all drank of the cup. 

We should say, then, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, a church 
of baptized believers must be gathered together. Bread and the 
juice of the grape must be present, a blessing and thanksgiving 
spoken, and all eat and all drink, in remembrance of Christ and 
communion mth Christ. To take away from this is to mar and 
mutilate the most sacred emblem of the church of Christ. To throw 
the communion open to the unbaptized is to give the flag into the 
hands of those who have not loyalty enough to put on the uniform. 
"For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
Christ." To refuse the cup to the laity is to cut ou.t the red stripes 
and hide them in the colonel's tent, while the tattered strips of 
white are left in the hands of the'regiment. To substitute water for 
wine is to take out all the red and substitute white — a flag of truce 
to every open enemy of the cross of Christ. God forbid that we 
should mutilate the word of him who said, "If ye love me keep 
my commandments." 

All this, and more, could be said if these symbols were only arbi- 
trary signs, if their only significance was because Jesus commanded 
them. But the ordinances are not arbitrary. Of baptism Dean 
Stanley says : "Whatever else the Christian was to be, baptism — ^1:he 
use of water — showed that he was to be clean and pure, in body, 
soul, and spirit, clean even in body." "It was to the apostles like 
a burial of the old former self and the rising up again of the new 
self." Dean Stanley had no doubt of the plain truth that every 
scholar knows, that "Baptism was not only a bath, but a plunge, 
an entire submersion, in deep water, a leap as into the rolling sea or 
the rushing river, where, for the moment, the waves close over the 
bather's head and he emerges again as from a momentary grave." 



582 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

THE INNER MEANING OF THE LORD^S SUPPER 

As baptism contained great truths, so, too, does the Lord^s Sup- 
per. Jesus chose S3^nibols which are full of truth in object lesson. 
The author from whom I have quoted says: "That last supper 
taught that Christ^s own inmost self would remain always the life 
and soul of the church and of the world.^^ The bread was "his 
body/' the wine his "blood of the new covenant.^' "Except ye eat 
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in 
you.'' Words like these seem almost repulsive at first, and they 
have been interpreted in such a way as to produce superstition and 
little less than idolatry. We interpret them as we do the words "I 
am the door/' "I am the vine/' "I am the shepherd/' "I am the 
way." Christ is the "chief cornerstone." Christ is the "head of 
all things to the church." "I live, not I, Christ liveth in me." 
These and like terms are used because only in this way can we have 
any conception of the relation of Christ to his people. They are 
figures of speech that approach the reality. The bread representing 
the body, the wine representing the blood — these most vividly por- 
tray the suffering Saviour ; "they show forth his death." 

The price of life is death. A thousand wheat germs died to give 
the loaf. The animal or bird or fish dies to give us our meat. 

"The falcon feeds upon the finch. 
The finch upon the fly, 
And thus wherever life is fed 
Something must die." 

What a picture of death, that our souls may live ! Our life is at 
the cost of the broken body and shed blood of the Son of Man. 

The memorial becomes not only a symbol but also a picture. You 
have many memorials of loved ones from whom you are separated, 
but the one you cherish most is the one that brings out his picture 
in his most loving mood. You love it because it is like him, and 
if some one should come and for any cause mutilate it how sad 
would you be ! Ask that old negro woman who, until 1865, was a 
slave, "Of which great man would you most like a picture?" She 
would say, "President Abraham Lincoln." "And at what moment 



THE loed's supper. 583 

of Lincoln's life would yon like to have the pictnre taken?" She 
wonld answer^ "Oh, I wonld like a pictnre that showed him jnst 
as he looked when he signed the Proclamation." If snch a photo- 
graph had been taken trne to life, the possession of it, in exclnsive 
right, wonld be a fortune to the owner, for every freed slave and 
freed slave's child wonld want one to hang on the walls of his 
home. The Lord^s Snpper, in the simplicity of its first establish- 
ment, presents to ns the Saviour in the act of onr emanci- 
pation, for we are redeemed with the precions blood of Christ. 
Precions doctrine of the atonement, the world^s only hope! 
Wonld yon go to my study and take from the wall the 
modest pictnre of my sainted mother, and with water colors 
paint ont the features, the scarred forehead, the deep-set eyes, 
the hands that ministered to me and led me, in my days of weak- 
ness, and then give me back only the garments in the pictnre, say- 
ing, "That is all you need, her dear face may make you long for the 
old farm house and its shades ; it may kindle the appetite for fresh 
air, for the fragrance of new-mown hay, for the bountiful fare of 
harvest-time that loaded the tables, and so you would be drawn 
away from 3^our ministry in the hot, crowded city, with its foul 
smells and stale foods. I say to you, no, a thousand times no I 
Let me look upon that face as it is ; let it suggest all that is sweet- 
est and dearest in my memory. What shall we say to those who 
would take out of the ordinances of Christ their meaning; out of 
baptism, death and resurrection, out of the Lord's Supper that cen- 
tral thought of the whole N"ew Testament, the atonement? Cain 
substituted the fruits of the field, the bloodless sacrifice, for the 
lamb, and we know the result. What mockery to say over a cup of 
water, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood," or "the cup 
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ?*' 

The thing which Satan fears most to-day is the old doctrine of 
"salvation by the blood of Christ." "They overcame him by 
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, 
and they loved not their lives unto the death." The stream- 
ing blood on Abel's altar, the scarlet thread from Eahab's window, 
the blood of the sacrifice on the day of atonement, the water and the 



584 THE AMEKICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

blood from the pierced side on the cross, the blood of the new Cove- 
nant in the cnp at the Lord^s Supper, and the final chorus of the 
redeemed, "Thou hast redeemed ns by thy blood" — all tell one 
story, the old, old story of the cross. And may this hand forget her 
cnnning, and this tongue cleave to the roof of my month, before an 
act or word of mine shall turn a single eye or thought from that 
sublimest act of sacrifice, the blood of the Lamb, shed for the re- 
mission of sins. 

THE LOKD's supper A SYMBOL 

But my liberal friend says, "It is only a symbol." Yes, and for 
that very reason it must be kept as first given. The square and 
compass are symbols in Masonry. Would a saw and axe do as well ? 
Three links are symbols of Odd Fellowship. Would a rope do as 
well? Thirteen stripes, a field of blue, and a star for each State, 
is the symbol of our national unity. Would three stripes and a red 
field with crescents over it do as well? Because ordinances are 
sjrmbols we seek to keep them in the form given by the Master. 

v^ine and temperakce 

But my practical temperance friend says : "The wine may kindle 
the old appetite in the drunkard. First. I have my doubts whether 
a man who has been ever so degraded a drunkard and has been 
redeemed was ever tempted at the communion. If his thoughts 
were full of his Saviour the demon of appetite could not find room 
to get in. Especially is this true when we use the unfermented 
Juice of the grape, which has no more alcohol in it than the grape 
in the cluster on the vine. I have as much sympathy with the 
drunkard as any one, but I would have the church develop his 
strength rather than coddle his weakness. Teach him to obey 
Christ and trust him for strength, rather than to disobey and pam- 
per his own feebleness. Second. But if there should be one whose 
faith was so weak, I would say, treat his case as an individual. 
Let him be a Quaker, and leave out the material part of the com- 
munion, rather than sit in judgment on the ordinances of the 
church and in condemnation of the wisdom of the Son of God, 
who appointed the bread and the wine in the Supper. The very 



THE LOED'S SUPPZE, oSo 

spirit of disloyaltr that goes to the Lord's table finding fatilt with 
Christ is evidence that the door is wide open for the tempter to 
come in. bnt he who goes singing and praying. 

•'•'Help me, dear SaTiour, thee to own, 
And ever faithful be," 

will not fail of that help, for even if the temptation shonld come, 
Christ will, with the temptation, provide a way of escape. 

THE LOED'S SUPPEB A DUTY 

The Lord's Snpper is a positive ordinance. It is not a privi- 
lege that may belong to the believer; it is a positive dnty. ''This 
do/' not this ye may do. is the word of the Master. Li onr denial 
of any sacramental efficacy in the ordinances there is a tendency 
to go to the opposite extreme of denial of their obligation npon 
ns. Confession in baptism and the Snpper is as mnch a duty as 
prayer, or reading the ^Vord. or chtirch attendance. These are 
the visible signs of discipleship. They are co mm ands of Christ, 
and in keeping of these, as in the keeping of all commandments, 
^'There is great reward."' Many keep from the Lord's Snpper be- 
canse it does not seem to them a necessary part of Christian living. 
Let me ask snch to consider what they owe to Christ as a king; 
what they owe to themselves in order to their best growth; and 
what they owe to the world as having in tmst the mysteries of God. 
11 yon have believed and have not been baptized, "why tarriest 
thon? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on 
the name of the Lord"' L£ yon are a baptized believer, and for any 
canse keep away, I beg of yon to "'examine yonrselves,'' not with 
a view to keeping away, bnt with a view of coming, and so may 
yon have part in showing forth his death till he come. 

LOGICAL EELATIOX OF THE TWO 0EI>rS"A2s"CES 

We place the Lord's Snpper jnst where the Christian world, with 
only a few exceptions, pnts it — after baptism. This we do be- 
canse the Xew Testament pnts baptism first in the order of time. 
Becanse the plain and necessary inference is that only baptized be- 
lievers were ever participants in the Lord's Snpper in Xew Testa- 



586 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ment times ; and because the logical relation of the two ordinances 
requires that baptism be first, baptism being the figure of the new 
birth into Christ, and the Lord's Supper the figure of the believer's 
feeding upon Christ. 

Baptists stand firm in the practice of ISTew Testament baptism, 
believing that we have no right to change one jot or tittle of Christ's 
law, and they are compelled to put the Lord's Supper where they 
do because they seek loyalty to the ;N"ew Testament, at the expense 
of being sometimes misunderstood, rather than a serotimental 
liberalism at the expense of conformity to the Word of God. 

The world, in order to be saved, must have the gospel in its full- 
ness and purity. Christ and Him crucified must be preached 
everywhere, to the godless at home and to the heathen abroad, to 
the high and the low, the rich and the poor. This gospel must be 
preached in every possible way, in the word of the Sunday-school 
teacher, in the sermons of the preacher, in the songs of the singers, 
in the columns of the press, and on the printed page, in the life 
of the Christian, and in the two beautiful ordinances appointed 
by the Founder of the church. 

^^E"ot without blood" the priest went into the most holy place 
of the temple; not without blood the One Great High Priest went 
into the holiest once for all; not without blood the church goes out 
into the world to conquer it for Christ, that many may at the 
last unite in the redemption song : "Thou hast redeemed us by thy 
blood out of every nation and kindred and tongue under heaven." 



OLIVER WILLIS VAN OSDEL was born in Middlebnsh, Duchess county, 
New York, October 30, 1846. When eight years of age his parents changed 
their residence to Illinois, where he spent the years of his boyhood and 
youth, learning to farm and work in wood and iron. During the war with 
the South he had a great desire to be a soldier; but being opposed by his 
parents, he waited until he was eighteen, and then, securing their consent, 
he enlisted in the 147th Illinois Infantry, and served until the close of the 
war. Home from the army, he was occupied with farming and his trades, 
but cherished a purpose to study law and become a politician. His parents 
were Methodists, and taught him to pray and love the Saviour early in 
childhood, and he never turned aside from these early habits of Bible study, 
prayer, and devotion to God. At sixteen he united with the Methodist 
Church. About one year before this he had built himself a desk and some 
bookshelves, collected a few books and began without a teacher an effort 
to get an education, expecting to be a lawyer. When twenty years of age 
he anticipated the realization of his ambition, but the volume of Blackstone 
spread out before him brought him no comfort, because, in his imagination, 
he could read, "Go preach," between all the lines on every page. This con- 
viction compelled the abandonment of the law for a nobler purpos?, and for 
this he began active preparation. Several years were occupied with study 
and teaching. On January 1, 1871, he and Miss Harriet A. Wood, an ac- 
complished teacher, were united in marriage. Previous to this he had be- 
come aware that Christ was not baptized three ways, and that Christ's one 
way must be made clear in the New Testament. Of course, there could 
be but one result. On March 7, 1869, he w^as baptized by Eev. Jonas Wood- 
ard in the Fox river, at Bristol, 111., and became a member of the Baptist 
Church there. In January, 1874, he accepted a call to become the pastor 
of the Baptist Church at Warrenville, 111., where he was ordained April 
30th of the same year. At the close of two years he became pastor at Aledo, 
111., and in November, 1878, went to Rock Island, 111. In March, 1881, he 
entered the theological seminary at Alorgan Park, 111., completing the full 
course in two years and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and at 
the same time A. M. was given him by the Old University of Chicago. A 
year of graduate work followed at the Seminary. In September, 1884, he 
became pastor at Ottawa, Kansas: in January, 1890, at Galesburg, 111., re- 
maining nearly six years. He next spent one year with the Wealthy- Avenue 
Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., and entered upon his present work in Spokane, 
Washington, in December, 1896. While pastor at Ottawa he became much 
impressed with the importance of denominational organization in the in- 
terests of our Baptist young people and an educational system to be used, by 
them in their training for work as Baptists. Accordingly the system was 
marked out by him which is now being carried forward so effectively by our 
National Union. During four years by letters and circulars he urged upon 
the denomination the formation of such a society. In 1888 he called a na- 
tional conference, to consider a national organization, to mest in Boston 
May, 1889, which, being postponed for one year, met in Chicago, 1890. He 
also called the convention which met in Chicago in July, 1891, and formed 
the Baptist Young People's Union of America. In company with Rev. James 
M. Coon he established and was the first editor of The Baptist Union. Dr. 
Van Osdel is a man of uncompromising purpose and energy. 
(587) 




1 



A son's identity proved. 589 



A BOWS IDENTITY PEOYED 



By Oliver Willis Yan Osdel, D. D., * 
Washington 

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." — 
Romans 8: 14. 

IN this Scripture the apostle is discussing the proposition that 
"There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.^^ He as- 
serts that there are two laws — "the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus" and "the law of sin and death.'' The life from 
Christ gives liberty and spirituality, while the sin, which springs 
from the carnal mind in opposition to God, brings bondage and 
death. The one whose mortal body has been quickened by the in- 
dwelling Spirit has not only been liberated from the power and 
condemnation of sin, but must be regarded as righteous as the in- 
dwelling life and force by which he is animated. The one who 
lives to mortify the deeds of the body, by the power of the pre- 
vailing and controlling Spirit, must be recognized as spiritually 
alive and fleshly dead. A life begotten, animated, and actuated 
by a person must be estimated as a son of that person; hence, "As 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 

The logic is perfect and the argument convincing, but there is 
a serious question confronting every one who tries to determine 
his relationship to God either by the proposition or the conclusion, 
viz.: "How shall I know I am led by the Spirit of God?" God's 
voice has not been heard. His form has not been seen; no signs 
have been shown to the inquirer for guidance, and shut up with 
misgivings about his own convictions, and left to act, without 
knowing in advance what results are to follow, he cannot easily 
silence the voice which constantly appeals for something tangible. 



590 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

^Tf I cannot know I am led by the Spirit of God, how shall I know 
I am a son of God?^^ This question has filled many a life with 
disquietude. It may be impossible to answer this most perplexing 
question to the full satisfaction of all, but there is some light to 
be found, and for tMs let us seek. 

I. WE MAY LEARN" FROM CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

If we confine ourselves to those who have had their early in- 
struction under Christian enlightenment, we shall be safe in say- 
ing that a Christian experience does not antedate that knowledge 
of the truth which was brought to us by the Word of God in the 
Scriptures. This being true, those following the Scriptures in a 
Christian experience are following the Spirit of God. We cannot 
say the Spirit confines his leading to the revelation in his Word 
under all circumstances, but we can say that the first tangible evi- 
dence of his leading is a definite acceptance of Christ, and is found 
there. Whatever experience we may have, for which we trust con- 
sciousness and feeling, the final evidence that one is a Christian 
comes from the Word of God. The Bible tells us all we know of 
the Spirit, Christ and the plan of salvation. 

How do we know that Christ died for our sins and will forgive 
us if we trust him? The Scriptures tell us all we know. How 
do we know that the Holy Spirit will accomplish the work of re- 
generation in us if we commit our souls unreservedly to Christ? 
The Scriptures tell us that he will. We learn also from the same 
source that the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and 
show them unto us. To abandon ourselves to rely upon the un- 
equivocal statements of Scripture concerning the Spirit's leading 
is no more perilous in this matter than in the matter of regenera- 
tion itself. We heard the truths respecting salvation and other 
things many times, and were only partly impressed by them, but 
there came a time when our minds were illumined, and we saw 
our own dark sin, with at least some of its hideous deformity and 
criminality, as it was before God, and then we saw Christ in all 
his tenderness and compassion as our Saviour, and we cast our- 
selves upon his free mercy. At that point the Holy Spirit began 



A SOX^S IDENTITY PROVED. 591 

his work of creation in us, not of new faculties^ but of a new re- 
pentance, which is to continue in ns until mortality and sin are 
dead; a new understanding of God, his Word, and ourselves; a 
new love, touching ever}d;hing in time and eternity; new volitions 
and purposes; a new confession of Christ; a new service; a new 
hope, and all these and more, centering in a new heart gave us a 
new peace, and we were thus enabled to speak of these things as 
our Christian experience. !N"ow, if we go back along the way we 
have come, and look for the indications we find that the things 
which belong to our new experience are all described in the Scrip- 
tures, and were made possible to us because we believed what was 
written and took the Holy Spirit at his word. That change which 
has taken place in us, of which we are conscious, is in exact har- 
mony with the revelation made by the Spirit, and thus we are per- 
suaded; we are placed in a new kingdom which cannot be moved. 
The Holy Spirit brought us the knowledge of the way, illumined 
us to walk in it, and then we, having tested all by obe3dng the 
Word, and having experienced the reality for ourselves, are in a 
position where no mere change of feeling can move the Eock upon 
which we rest. In the possession of this blessed hope, "which is 
as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast," we may say, in 
the truest and largest sense : "The Spirit beareth witness with our 
spirits that we are the children of God." 

Let us not lose sight of the fact then that when we know we 
are following an intelligent understanding of the Scriptures we 
are following the Spirit of God. We should notice that it must be 
an intelligent understanding, because many persons take single 
verses, or sections of Scripture, apart from the connections in 
which the inspired authors placed them, or they take a piece of 
what one author says, on one occasion, and put it with what some 
other author says on some other occasion, or they turn the state- 
ment of facts concerning conditions when the author wrote into 
prophetic announcements for the future, or they make prophecy 
already fulfilled apply to the coming events of the kingdom and 
the world, or they make what was said to the Jews of long ago 
apply to Christians, and thus, by these unreasonable and dishonest 



I 



592 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

methods, make the Holy Spirit say what he never intended. We 
must be careful also not to follow those who by improper and ex- 
aggerated views of meditation allow loose reign to a wild imagina- 
tion, and thns fall into numerous errors and injuriously false doc- 
trines. We must not use the Bible as a "fetich^^ nor settle ques- 
tions of duty, obligation, and calls by opening it at random and 
taking the first verse our eyes rest upon as the voice of God. 
These ways and others of misusing and abusing the Bible has filled 
the world with all sorts of sects and the most dangerous fanaticism. 
We must allow the Holy Spirit to be a person and speak to us 
through his chosen messengers in the same rational way we speak 
to one another, not misplacing nor distorting his words. 

The Bible presents to us the history and principles touching 
many nations and multitudes of people for time and eternity, 
and we must not think its matchless truths are mastered by the in- 
dolent. It is the greatest book in the world, and when studied with 
the same diligence and fairmindedness allowed to other books it 
yields its treasures of spiritual knowledge for our transformation 
of character and guidance in the way of life. The Bible is a tran- 
script of God^s character, and reveals to us some of the rules by 
which he acts. If we come into the possession of these principles 
and our hearts are filled with loving devotion for Christ so that 
we are striving day by day to represent him, and ^^do always the 
things which please him,^^ then we may truly say that so far we 
are led by the Spirit of God, and our identity as sons is proved. 
It is best for us constantly to remember that it is easy to be turned 
aside from the real and tangible things of the Spirit into the fan- 
ciful and emotional, or to drift into the mystical vagaries of 
dreamers, or to be deceived by the self-deceived who seem to bear 
witness concerning marvelous manifestations and miracles, vocif- 
erously asserting their dogmas concerning what might be done if 
men had adequate faith. We ought to remember that so far as 
time has given opportunity to prove these people they have, without 
exception, had their pains and ills and have all died and we trust 
gone to heaven to learn more practical views of spiritual things. 
Those who are living of this class are following rapidly in the 



A SOX^S IDEXTITY PEOTED. 593 

way of those gone on before, for the Spirit has said: "It is ap- 
pointed unto man once to die." Spiritual things do not consist in 
strange experiences and spectacular displays nor in ignoring facts 
in human experience and history, but in the unfolding of a pure 
and rational life, intelligent in the Scriptures, constant in prayer, 
and devotion to the service of God. "We should remember, too, that 
our supreme example for the service of God is manifested in Jesus 
Christ, and the self-denying service which lifts men up toward 
heaven and saves them is Christ-like and spiritual. "The words 
that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." "If any 
man would be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his 
cross and follow me" are the words of Jesus, and, having that mind 
which was also in Christ Jesus, no one will be likely to question 
the credentials of our sonship. 

What has now been said will probably be satisfactory so far as 
a saving faith and the great principles of Christianity are con- 
cerned, because in these particulars the Bible meets the whole de- 
mand for the Spirit's leading; but each person lives in a realm of 
activity where there are questions pressing upon him for answers 
which concern him alone, and for .these the Bible furnishes no di- 
rect explanation or ground of judgment. Let us be assured, how- 
ever, that these conditions have not been overlooked by our 
Heavenly Father, as we shall see when we have taken another step 
in our investigation. 

II. GOD EXPECTS US TO LEABX EEOIM HIS LOVE AXD PATIEXCE 

In order for us to understand God^s leading, we shall need to 
have it clearly fixed in our minds that there is a distinction to be 
made between the method of leading us into a sonship where our 
names are written in heaven, and a sonship where growth in grace 
and Christian maturity are the ends in view. In the first case 
a birth into a new life is produced: in the second there is the de- 
velopment of that life so that it shall reach up toward the meas- 
ure of the fuUness of the stature of Christ. In the first case we 
have the positive statements of divine truth to receive and act 
upon, to give the basis of the new life, which has a spiritual na- 
ture, ready to unfold according to its kind, while in the second 



594 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

we have the process by which that life shall exercise itself in the 
kingdom of God under special and particular and personal pro- 
visions of the Spirit's leading in order to produce the highest 
Christian manhood. The first is as discernible as planting the 
seed in the soil, but the second is as incognizable as the silent ac- 
tion of earth, and air and sun in bringing that seed to its harvest 
maturity. If these things are given due consideration it will 
readily be seen that revealed truth under the Spirit's power acts 
alike in all cases in producing spiritual life; but when that life 
has had its origin its development must be as variable as differing 
dispositions in different human beings. This leading toward a 
character adorned with God's likeness must be sufficiently hidden 
from view to allow the child of God the free exercise of his choice 
and decision or there could not be the cultivation of that responsi- 
bility which belongs to the manhood of sonship. While, therefore, 
the Spirit is the internal sovereign, the intercessor in prayer, and 
the earnest, or pledge, in our hearts of God's presence, Christ is 
the object of his revelation, and a son of God is the subject of his 
transforming power. Hence, it is evident that we shall be led in a 
way where we shall need to learn to choose and walk, apparently 
unaided, when we come into strange paths, where duty and respon- 
sibility are both pressing upon us and the need of help and guid- 
ance are very apparent. Under such circumstances it is most 
natural that many eager questionings should arise. The real cause 
of our trouble, therefore, is learning to walk with God without 
hearing his voice or feeling the touch of his hand; but this every 
Christian must learn before he can fully represent Christ and 
stand complete for the glory of God. 

Having thus examined, the conditions in which we are placed by 
the very purpose our Father has in view, let us see if there is any 
way by which we may Imow, under all circumstances, that the 
honest seekers for God's way are led by the Spirit of God. Let 
us remember, first of all, that we have settled the question of de- 
termining sonship by the Word of God, so far as a regenerated life 
is concerned, so that our question has really become, ^^ill God 
guide his sons"? rather than an inquiry into the genuineness of 



A son's identity proved. 595 

sonship as proved by the Spirit^s leading. Being conscious that 
we have put ourselves in Christ's hands, we have with that act the 
assurance that all his promises are onrs. Christ cannot be untrue 
or negligent. It would be as easy for his throne to be moved out of 
its place and his kingdom to fail as for a soul to be lost that trusts in 
him. God's love is infinite. He is vastly more anxious to save us 
and lead us right than we are to be led. This is proved by what 
he has done. "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
things?'' When once we look at Calvary, we can no longer doubt 
God's readiness "To do exceeding abundantly more than we can 
ask or think." There are no conditions or limitations hedging 
the declaration that "All things work together for good to them 
that love God." When the soul is devoted to the service of God, 
seeking his guidance with all of its ardency and best powers, God 
will not let that soul go wrong. We can learn this by reading our 
lives backwards. Going again over all those uncertain places where 
we carefully felt our way, we cannot but marvel now at the way 
all things worked together for good, and we were kept as well as 
if there had been scores of divine finger-boards pointing out the 
way. If we have been thus kept in the past, surely we can rely upon 
God's fatherly love and purpose to keep us in the future when we 
have done our part in prayer and loyalty. Many go astray because 
they are trying to be Christians in order that they may use God 
instead of having God use them? If we are willing to allow God 
to have his way with us, we shall not easily go wrong. Being as- 
sured that God will guide his sons and that his love guarantees it, 
we ma}'' enter a little farther into the sublime and heroic way God 
is taking to make us like himself. We may take this advance step 
by considering that 

III. THE SPIEIT^S LEADING IS NOT SO MUCH REPRESSIVE AS PRO- 
DUCTIVE OF CHRIST-LIKE PERSONALITY 

The revelation of God and the Spirit of God are not given pri- 
marily for arbitrary decision in questions of service and responsi- 
bilit}^, but for assimilation and fellowship, so that God's way of 



596 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

putting things becomes the normal way of our soul's activity un- 
restrained. This is all beautifully illustrated in our home-life 
among those scenes where parents train their sons and daughters 
and rear them to a noble manhood and womanhood. The mother 
does not carry the child in her arms always. The time comes when 
it must be taught to balance upon its own feet and take a step by 
itself. Mother's hand is ready for the rescue when the little feet 
trip or falter, but going alone must be attained before there is 
promise of maturity. Thou shalt and thou shalt not are only in- 
cident to willfulness and weakness. Full stature crowns the assimi- 
lation of those principles of right and truth which have formed 
the heart of family government and guidance. In manhood these 
principles became the springs of independent action in the sons 
and daughters, making them the peers of their parents, and fur- 
nishing the ground of fellowship and satisfaction. G-od's sons are 
so led as to secure their independent action and at the same 
time to assure their likeness to himself. 

The Spirit's leading is designed to call forth the exercise of our 
noblest purposes and our highest ideals. The great triumphs of 
enterprise, standing as monuments of art and skill, are but the 
actualizations of thoughts which once burned in men's minds. 
Thus sonship, when it is finished in character, will be but the 
realization of the highest and best in purpose and ideal as God has 
made it possible for us to work it out. Under these conditions life 
becomes a study — an agony. Every power is disciplined and 
brought to its full capacity. All that belongs to life and God is 
mastered to the extent of an ever-enlarging ability. ^^ Agonize to 
enter in at the strait gate" ceases to come to us from the lips of 
Jesus as a meaningless command. Christ is above us, and we are 
reaching up toward the measure of the stature of his fullness. "It 
doth not yet appear what shall be, but when he shall appear we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." We are laborers 
together with God in that adornment of soul, wliich is to be eter- 
nal. God is imparting the unseen energy, and we are working it 
out as we are moulding and fashioning his ideal as well as our 
own. As the sculptor, with mallet and chisel, works out the beau- 



A S02s^S IDENTITY PEOYED. 597 

tiful image in Ms mind, so we, while fashioning Christian char- 
acter stroke by stroke and day by day, are actualizing God's lead- 
ing and ideal. Under these conditions how significant the words 
of Tennyson become: 

''Xife is not an idle ore, 
But iron dug from central gloom, 
And heated hot with burning fears, 
And dipped in baths of scalding t«ars, 
And battered with the shocks of doom." 

Sonship to God in its excellence is, in some sense, an enlarge- 
ment. It finds its beginning in the new life, begotten by the Spirit, 
and to this is added, with the experience of the years, all the fine 
characteristics of a great Christian personality. The supreme ob- 
ject before the sonl is that transfigured beauty which gives the 
white robes of an -unblemished influence and the glorified face 
which follows prayer and fellowship with God. Then, while the 
man seemed to be fighting the battles and working out the prob- 
lems, without visible hand to help or rules to direct, the Spirit 
watched and helped and directed alLthe while. Men build a bridge 
over the dangerous and raging stream. The kite first carries the 
cord; the cord a wire; the wire a cable, and this another cable, 
and then is added, piece by piece, all that finally completes the 
vast structure which carries the tide of travel and of trade from 
shore to shore. Thus Christian manhood, built little by little, 
is enlarged so that it can sustain not only its own daily burdens 
and responsibilities, but becomes a tower of strength, a supporting 
power, a projecting force to help others on to heaven. And thus 
instructed, we come to understand that heaven and the new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness, are not ordinary places. They are 
for an order of beings saved in Christ and adorned with character 
and powers by the Spirit of God, and both places and inhabitants 
far exceed all possible statements based upon the conceptions and 
language belonging to life in this world. 

Christ is the greatest hero in the universe, and sons of God will 
be those of heroic mould who, through his grace in the possession 
of his mind, have lived and died to self and the world as he did. 



598 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and under Ms leadership have come ofE more than conquerers. 
Think not that the winning of such a life and crown is but "The 
pastime of a drowsy summer day/^ History has her heroes, and 
they live in the world^s memory, because their deeds of valor and 
achievements in the interests of country, liberty, and justice en- 
title them to such a place ; and their home-coming from the field of 
battle was spontaneously celebrated by the multitude of their fel- 
lows, with bands, and badged and bannered hosts, as the fitting 
recognition of their noble deeds. How much more, then, will 
heaven be but the homecoming of the heroes, and the future be 
filled with the achievements and triumphs of all who have overcome ? 
Let us be comforted in these things. N"ow, our progress may be 
slow, and our days of burdens and questionings, perplexingly 
tedious, as we climb heavenward round by round, if indeed we seem 
to rise at all. Life may be filled with dark places as months go by 
with only waiting, but let patience have her perfect work. Mr. 
Euskin has well said, "There is no music in a rest but a rest is a 
music maker." After the waiting, there bursts suddenly upon 
us some new sweet harmony, for which the silence was necessary 
to prepare the way. After the darkness, to the trustful soul, there 
must ever dawn a new and a brighter day. After the waiting, 
heaven's harmonies will sweep in upon us to enrapture and soothe 
us with the peace of God. Many of our troubles come from our 
doubts. We imagine God does not care now or that he will fail us 
in our present trying time. But why should we doubt? Let us 
rest in his promises and his love. Let us lean upon him securely. 
If we love him, he will not suffer us to go wrong. With such a 
destiny before us we can afford to endure. "To him that over- 
cometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame 
and am sat down with my father on his throne." 

And now, men and women ! we cannot hide from ourselves, the 
fact, that most of those who were designed to wear God's heroic 
character, and shine in the beauty of his likeness, are oblivious to 
their souFs highest interests, and busy, investing their energy and 
time, seeking some common object, belonging to this present life 
alone. How truly Dr. Holland has written : 



A son's identity proved. 599 

"Ambition, appetite, and pride, 
These throng and thrall the hearts of men; 
These plat the thorns and pierce the side 
Of him who in our hearts again 
Is spit upon and crucified. 
The greed for gain, the thirst for power, 
The lust that blackens while it burns, 
Ah, these the whitest souls deflour! 
And one or all of these by turns 
Rob man of his divinest dower." 

If to-day I speak to one who has borne the name of Christian, 
or to one who has never arisen to the high estate of being in Christ, 
who has to this hour drifted, and neglected his sonPs divine oppor- 
tunity, let me arouse yon to action. There is bnt one opportunity 
to win the glory of sonship to God. While the Holy Spirit would 
lead you into this new life and then that larger fellowship with his 
Son, accept of his proffered aid. Let no one be deterred by the 
fierceness or length of the battle. In the times of trial and tempta- 
tion, when self must be crucified, there and then God identifies his 
loved ones who are his own. Let us stir up our aspirations to-day 
to live out God^s thought for us, and to use every power to attain 
to heaven and the glory of the sons of G^d. 



600 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LI 

THE MAInTWAED SIDE OF EELIGION.* 



By Eev. Galon Smith Clevenger^ 
Alaska 

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." — ^Mark 12: 31. 

MY purpose at this hour is not so much to expound this text as 
to bring before you a brief resume of Christ's teaching in ref- 
erence to duty to our fellow-man. Jesus said to love God with all 
our ability and our neighbor as ourselves^ is chief among the com- 
mandments, the sum and substance of the law and the prophets 
and the gateway of life. He taught that love to God has its fruit- 
age in love to man and that service to man is taken as service to 
himself. 'No one can study carefully the conversations of Jesus 
without being impressed with the emphasis which Jesus lays on the 
manward side of religion. Study with me this evening some of his 
teachings on the subject. 

Upon one occasion a lawyer came to Christ to ask him what he 
should do to inherit eternal life. "What have you obtained on the 
subject from the study of the law, inquired Jesus?'' The lawyer 
replied, we are to love God with all the heart, soul and mind, and 
our neighbor as ourselves. 

This do, says Jesus, and thou shalt live. The lawyer asks, "Who 
is my neighbor?" Jesus replies by parable A certain man as 
he journeyed from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves which 
robbed him and left him half dead by the roadside. By chance 
a priest came along, but he passed by on the other side. Then a 
Levite came along and did the same thing. But a Samaritan came 
along and had compassion on him, bound up his wounds, poured in 
oil and wine, placed him on his own beast, took him to an inn and 



*Preached in the First Baptist Church, Skagway, Alaska, Sunday even- 
ing, February 17, 1901. 




11¥= (Si^LM I. (gLl^llOI 



GALON SMITH CLEVENGER was born in Kennon, Ohio; educated at 
McaSTeely Normal School, Denison University, and Rochester Theological 
Seminary, In 1878 he settled at Pike, N. Y. In 1882 the American Baptist 
Home Mission Society sent him to Dakota to develop churches. His first 
work was at Brookings, the seat of the State Agricultural College. Here he 
developed a good church and built one of the finest church buildings in the 
Dakota's. He exercised a most excellent influence over the students in Bible 
teaching. From Brookings he went to Vermillion, the seat of the State 
University. Here also he developed a large class in the life of Christ among 
the students. In 1889 he was sent by the American Baptist Home Mission 
Society to the Black Hills of South Dakota. At this time there was not a 
Baptist church building in the entire Hills country. Here by his Biblical, 
thoughtful preaching he drew good congregations where others had failed, 
and the fact that the Baptists are now among the leading denominations in 
the Black Hills is due largely to his personal efTorts. In 1897 he became 
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pierre, South Dakota. When the 
Spanish American war broke out he was selected to be chaplain of the 
Grigsby Bough Rider Regiment, the Third United States Volunteer Cavalry. 
He was a most devoted and successful chaplain. Adjutant Sues says: "It 
can be safely said that there was no more popular officer in the entire regi- 
ment than Chaplain Clevenger. Possessed of a striking personality, a re- 
markably acute mind, and that pleasant manner which makes you feel per- 
fectly at home upon first acquaintance, together with a marked Christian 
solicitude that forces you to recognize a friend in him at once, it is no 
wonder that he was idolized by officers and men alike before he was in 
camp a week." Colonel Grigsby says: "I want to say that Chaplain Cle- 
venger is the model chaplain. I have never seen an army chaplain who 
could approach him in energy, kindliness, and constant care for his men. 
He was constantly going not only from tent to tent, but from hospital to 
hospital and doing service for the men by whom he was idolized." After his 
muster out, he returned to his charge in Pierre, Avhere he was unanimously 
elected chaplain of the State Senate. In 1899 he was called back to Ohio to 
care for his mother in her last sickness. He and his devoted wife gave them- 
selves up to minister to her night and day until she passed away. In June, 
1900, he was sent by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to Skag- 
way, Alaska, to do mission work, where he is now located. 
(602) 



THE IMAXTVAED SIDE OE EELIGIOX. 603 

paid his bill and left orders to take care of him "until he returned 
and he would pay any further bill. "Xow/'^ says Jesns, '^Vhich one 
proved neighbor ?" "The one that showed mercy/^ said the lawyer. 
Then said Jesus. ''Go and do thou likewise.'' We are to leam from 
this that one may attend divine service on the Lord's day with his 
Bible under his arm. and he may reverently bow with the worship- 
pers, but if he is forgetful of human needs during the week he is 
simply playing the part of the priest and the Levite. On the other 
hand when one addresses himseK to human needs whenever and 
wherever he may find it^ he is acting the part of the good Samaritan 
who gave the tmf ortunate man his sympathy, for he was moved with 
compassion: who gave him his hand, for he bound up his wounds, 
poured in oil and wine and set him on his own beast ; who gave him 
his money, for he paid his bill. In the words, "Go and do thou 
likewise,'* we may hear the divine call out of heaven, "Make the 
lives of others bright and happy as possible.'^ 

Speaking of the priest and the Levite, we are led to that quota- 
tion from the prophet Hosea which Christ was wont to make. ^H 
will have mercy and not sacrifice.*' Jesus had gone home with Mat- 
thew to attend a feast at his home. The Pharisees complain of 
him because he mingles with such company. "'Go," says Jesus, 
'T.eam what this means. I will have mercy and hot sacrifice." That 
is, to go and leam to help your fellow man is a higher service than 
formal worship. 

Again the Pharisees charge Christ with breaking the Sabbath 
because his disciple, when they were hungry, had rubbed out a 
little grain by the wayside and had eaten it. "Tf you had known 
what this meaneth,' said Christ, ^T! will have mercy and not sacri- 
fice,*' you would not have condemned the guiltless. That is, if you 
had known that kindness and helpfulness to another is the highest 
kind of service to God, you could never have made this charge. 

When the mother of James and John came to Christ to ask that 
one of her sons might sit on the right hand and the other on the 
left in his kingdom, the ten were aroused with indignation. Jesus 
said to the disciples, you know that the Grentiles lord it over you, 
but it shall not be so among vou. Whosoever shall be first among 



604 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

you shall be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be 
ministered unto but to minister. 

Shortly after the transfiguration of Jesus, the disciples had re- 
turned to Capernaum. On their way down the disciples disputed 
among themselves as to who should be the greatest in the new king- 
dom which they supposed that Jesus would soon set us. After they 
had reached Capernaum, Jesus calls the disciples about him and 
takes a little child and sets him in the midst of them and said, 
^"^Except ye be changed and become as little children, you can have 
no part in my kingdom. You have been self-seeking but the spirit 
of my kingdom is self -giving.-'^ 

On Tuesday of Passion week in the Temple, he said to the dis- 
ciples, "Be not called Eabbi, for one is your teacher and ye are 
brethren. Call no man your father on the earth, for one is your 
Father which is in heaven. I:^either be ye called masters, for one is 
your Master even the Christ, but he that is greatest among you 
shall be your servant.^^ As much as to say, the highest honor does 
not lie in position or in title, but in the greatest service to humanity. 

The Grolden Eule is a summing up of what Christ has said in 
the sermon on the Mount about duty to fellow man. He had taught 
that hatred is murder, that the lustful look is adultery, that the 
disciple is to love his enemies, that he is not to judge harshly, for 
the standard by which he judges others will be the standard by 
which he will be judged. Then he sums up by saying, "All things, 
therefore whatsoever ye would that men would do unto you, even so 
do ye unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.^' In this 
great exposition of the principles of the kingdom, duty to man 
stands out most prominent. Treat your fellow man as a brother 
stands by the side of the duty to trust and obey God as a Father. 

What is the teaching of the parable of the rich mian and Lazarus, 
other than the terrible end of selfishness toward a fellow mortal? 
Jesus had been teaching that money should be used in a way to 
make friends. The Pharisees who were lovers of money ridiculed 
him. Jesus pulls aside the veil by parable and shows them the end 
of one who reveled in luxury every day and let a poor man at his 
gate suffer want with no one to minister to him but the dogs. The 



THE 3IAXWAED SIDE OE EELIGIOX. 605 

teacHng of the parable is tliat selfishness toward man in this world 
leads to suffering in the next world. Jesus^ description of final 
judgment teaches the same. To whom does the King say, "Come, 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for yon from 
the foundation of the world ?^^ To those who had ministered to 
even the least of Christ^s brethren, says Jesus, ^TE was an hungered 
and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink ; I was a 
stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick 
and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me. The 
righteous shall answer when saw we thee an hungered and fed 
thee, or athirst and give thee drink; when saw we thee a stranger 
and took thee in or naked and clothed thee; when saw we thee sick 
or in prison and come unto thee? The King shall answer and say 
unto them, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my children, 
even the least, ye did it unto me." 

To whom does the King say, ^TDepart from me ye cursed ?" To 
those who had lived selfish lives toward their fellow man; to those 
who like the priest and the Levite had gone by on the other side. 
Says Jesus, "I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat; I was 
a stranger and ye took me not in ; naked and ye clothed me not ; sick 
and in prison and ye ministered not unto me." 

^^TThen saw we thee in this condition ?" The King shall answer, 
"Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it 
not to me." "And these shall go away into eternal punishment." 

What are we taught here? Precisely the same truth that is 
taught in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, namely, selfish- 
ness toward man in this world leads to suffering in the world to 
come. 

We know but little about Christ's early life, but the pictures the 
gospels give of him after he had entered upon his public ministry 
is that of a man pouring out his life for the good of humanity. 
I do not refer now specially to his sacrificial work but to his life 
as a man among men. His sympathy, his helpfulness, his anxiety 
for the good of men. "He went about doing good." He came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister." His life was an unbroken 



606 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

series of good works tending to the same end, the glory of God 
and the good of man. 

From this brief resume of Chrisf s teaching in reference to duty 
to man and his own example, what may we learn ? First, that con- 
version must break the power of selfishness in the sooil. Wo pro- 
fession, no sanctity, no creed, can save a selfish sonl. 

He who counts on being saved by Christ's crncifixion without the 
Christ spirit of devotion to man, will surely be mistaken in the 
'final judgment. Says Christ, "Whosoever will save his life shall 
lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 
That is, selfishness is death, while unselfishness is life. 

We learn second that the soul lives and unfolds itself after the 
Christ image, as it takes on the spirit of devotion to others as well 
as the spirit of obedience to the Father. We take on the character 
of God to the degree that we take on his self-giving life. He so 
loved the world that he gave his Son. Upon the withdrawal of the 
Son, he gave the Spirit to abide forever. "Every good gift and 
every perfect boon is from, above, coming down from the Father 
of lights." As self giving is characteristic of God so we grow in 
God-likeness as we surrender our lives to Christ to be poured back 
into the world as a stream of life-giving love. 

We learn thirdly that we may minister directly to Christ to-day 
by ministering to others. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Ee- 
member that when you carry joy and gladness to the hearts about 
you, you carry joy and gladness to the heart of Christ. You say, 
•^^, that I could minister directly to him!" Do you see a need? 
That is Christ's call to you for help and if you act, rest assured your 
service has touched his heart. Nothing else can bring to you a 
sweeter communion with heaven than to go forth out of love for 
Christ and minister to him by scattering sunshine, lifting up the 
fallen, cheering the faint, lending a kind hand to the needy, living 
a generous, genial, loving life toward those about you. 

Lastly we may learn what a provision God has made for the wel- 
fare of each one of us. He gives his angels charge to keep us in all 
our ways. What a blessed thought that in some place in this uni- 



THE 3IAXWAED SIDE OF EEUGIOX. 607 

verse those beantifol^ TmseMsli spirits are ministeriiig to us. Bnt 
more than this^ he charges that yon are to serve him by serving 
me. He charges me that I am to serve him by serving yon. Beloved, 
shall we keep this charge by going out and recognizing in every 
man a brother and seek his interest as well as onr own and thns 
hasten the coming of his kingdom. 

Eor when men tonch each other with the tonch of Christ, love 
each other with the love of Christ, and serve each other with the 
spirit of Gkrist, then out of heaven has come the ^ew Jerusalem, 
and "npon earth's grateful sod will rest the city of our God." 



608 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LII 

THE EVAKGELIZATIOIT OF LATIN" AMEEICA. 



By Eev. Hugh Pendleton McCoemick 
Porto Eico. 

"Arise, and go toward the South." — ^Acts 8 : 26. 

WE are told by ancient chroniclers that Columbus' westward 
course was deflected to the south by the appearance of 
a flock of birds flying in that direction. That was not merely an 
accident of the sea, fraught with momentous results. It was the 
providence of God; and all who believe him imminent in history, 
must, in the light of later centuries, be convinced, that when he thus 
turned the illustrious navigator to the south, it was to preserve for 
his truth and his chosen people a secure asylum on the north. 

In the wake of Columbus came a flood of Spanish soldiers, set- 
tlers, speculators, and priests. Ancient civilization and savagery 
gave way to the savagery and civilization from the East. Strange 
new rites and images filled the temples of the Incas and Montezu- 
mas; and under the twin alliance of soldier and priest half a con- 
tinent was delivered, bound, and beaten with many stripes, into the 
absolute moral dominion of Eome, and Spanish America became 
a realized fact. 

A century later, God's separated and persecuted people — our 
high-born spiritual ancestry — found on the shores of ISTorth Amer- 
ica the home kept for their coming and their training. These were 
the priests chosen of heaven to bring the ark of Israel to the land of 
promise on the west. Into their pious custody was given the one 
priceless gift of the Old World to the N"ew — the Book, seal an5. 
symbol of their freedom as sons of God, and as sons of men; the 
priceless Book which was to make their children and their children's 
children the heralds of light and liberty unto the ends of the earth. 

Eor three hundred years these twain were kept apart, but at last 
the chapter of isolation has Feen closed, and we have entered upon 




\n ^c 



HUGH PENDLETON McCORMICK was born in Loudoun county, Va., 
in August, 1860. From the time of his, conversion his view of life has been 
earnest. Growing up just after the war between the States he had to battle 
for what he could get out of the schoolroom. To this hard fact is due the 
<jircumstances that he was able to get only a good part of the training 
which college and .seminary affords. About 1879 he was a student at Rich- 
mond College, Va. In 1881-'82 and again in 1885-'86 he taught in Howard 
College, Ala., and at the same time was pastor of Hopewell Church, in 
Perry county of that State. His ordination took place at the Middleburg 
Baptist Church, Loudoun county, Va., in 1883, and ne was a pastor in 
that county during the following year, where he preached with great ac- 
ceptance. During parts of two sessions he was at the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary, at Louisville, and while there was pastor of New 
Castle and Burk's Branch churches, in Shelby county, Ky., where he ac- 
complished great good. While at Howard College, Mr. McCormick met 
Miss Anne P. Perry, a daughter of Dr. Samuel Perry, of Marion, Ala., who 
afterwards became his wife. This intellectual, briglit-hearted, enthusias- 
tic young lady has been his counselor and inspiration through all of his 
trying years of missionary service. ]May they long work together for the 
enlightenment and salvation of Latin America. In the fall of 1886 he took 
his devoted bride and crossed the Rio Grande to preach the gospel in 
Mexico. Hiis field of labor for a number of years was in the great city of 
Zacatecas, but he worked later in Morelia, in the State of Miehoacan. He 
gave ispecial attention to self-supporting work among the natives. He left 
Mexico in September, 1898, after twelvee years of faithful work. On Feb- 
ruary 2, 1899, under appointment of the American Baptist Home Mission 
Society as General Missionary to Porto Rico, Mr. McCormick arrived in 
San Juan, the first evangelical missionary to begin work in the island. 
He organized the first evangelical church of any denomination at Rio 
Piedras. He now has four churches, a number of out stations, and has 
immersed over one hundred and fifty converts. Rev. A, B. Rudd and his 
-wife, who were true yokefellows with Mr. and Mrs. McCormick in Mexico, 
are located at Ponce, in Southern Porto Rico, and are doing a most excel- 
lent work. Rev. Harry A. Bagby, D. D., pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, 
Richmond, Va., says: "Were I constantly in the pew instead of in the pulpit 
Hugh Pendleton McCormick is such a man as I should select to be my 
pastor. He is a man Avho could worthily occupy any pulpit in the South." 
(610) 



THE EVANGELIZATION OF LATIN AMEEICA. 611 

the period of intercourse, of wedded interests. God has all sud- 
denly brought these peoples of alien tongues into intimate relation- 
ship. The great seal of the Pan American Exposition of 1901, is 
the artistic expression of something deeper than a friendly senti- 
ment. The hands of the two Americas are interlocked not only in 
token of amity and good will, but that of the !N'orth is pouring into 
the suppliant hand extended from the South those infinite bless- 
ings, the Gospel of Christ alone can supply. More wonderful still ; 
through the unexpected events of war, eleven million Spanish-speak- 
ing foster children have been suddenly gathered about the hearth- 
stone of our fatherland. 

The inner meaning of this great human drama is not difficult to 
find. The Day Star is rising over Latin America; the hour of her 
redemption draweth nigh. God has battered down doors barricaded 
for ages against his word, and offers his people the privilege, and 
lays upon them the obligation of carrying the story of redeeming 
love unto those sad sister nations that have lain so long under 
the shadow of spiritual death. 

The hour, then, hath come when the Baptist hosts of America 
must decide, before Almighty God, what they purpose doing for 
the evangelization of these Spanish-speaking peoples. 

We wished worthily to mark the close of the nineteenth century ; 
to place some new, rich stone in the temple of the king. We looked 
anxiously about for some grand new enterprise with which to com- 
memorate the opening of the new century ; for some battle cry which 
would stir our people as a blast from the trumpet of God. 

In the evangelization of Latin America God has placed before us 
an enterprise and a watchword which — if we be wise to know "the 
day of our visitation" — are worthy of such an era, and should 
quicken into enthusiasm the dormant spirit of all our churches. 

A SURVEY OF THE FIELD 

The panorama of opportunity stretching out to the south of us 
presents an imperial realm of missionary activity never equalled, 
perhaps, in the history of Christianity. Fifty millions of our fel- 
low men, geographically and morally accessible to our ministrations, 
are living and dying with no saving knowledge of Christ, the Lamb 



612 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

that taketh away the sin of the world. Thanks to current litera- 
ture, we are all familiar with the extent and amazing fertility of 
their "territory; the infinite variety and attractions of their climate 
and scenery; with their amiable and sterling qualities of mind and 
heart, with their civilization and customs social and political. We 
know that they are, unquestionably to take in the near future a 
prominent part in the destinies of the world. 

Spiritually, they are in a distressful state. Eor four hundred 
years they have known only the teaching of Eome and unspeak- 
ably sorrowful are the results. Ignorance, infidelity, poverty, un- 
cleanness, and superstition are all but universal. The one church 
to which, to the exclusion of all others, they looked for moral 
healing was the incarnation of cupidity, duplicity and arrogant 
despotism. Her priests have made Latin America a "valley of 
slime pits,^^ and as for their lives, "There is no chastity in words to 
utter them.^^ Eome and not Spain is responsible for this degra- 
dation. She paralyzed the efforts of Spanish statesmen who at- 
tempted to educate the people, and to create legally constituted 
homes. She has shown herself, in every one of these countries to 
be a leprous, corrupted and corrupting thing, and %y the wine of 
the wrath of her fornication all of these nations are fallen^' into 
their low estate. 

Where shall they find medicine for their healing? Secular edu- 
cation will not avail. As in France, it has been weighed and found 
wanting. It quickens no conscience, saves none that are lost. 

'Nor will the importation of priests from the United States prove, 
as some have hoped, of benefit. 

'Twill be but adding "the farce Italian 
To tlie Spanish drama." 

Shall the blind lead the blind ? A foreign priest in South Amer- 
ica becomes at once a Spanish priest, no more — frequently some- 
thing less. He teaches no Scripture. He devotes his energies to 
strengthening faith in the old dead forms, and idolatrous practices, 
and in instigating dread and hate of the Protestant Book. 

The only hope for them is the Gospel, simply, lovingly preached. 
It will do for them what it has done for us. They are not more 



THE EVANGELIZATION- OF LATIN AMEEICA. 613 

simken in superstition and vice than was England when still in 
the slough of Eome; when the Bishop of London burned Bibles 
at Cheapside and papal legates made bonfires of saints for reading 
God^s Holy Word, or for criticizing the lecherous lives of the priests. 
South America can never enjoy the fruits of the Gospel, but by the 
Gospel itself, and upon us rests the obligation of taking it to her. 

"When God wills an event, he prepares the causes beforehand,^' 
wrote a wise Egyptian. He has for a century past been preparing 
Latin America for the reception of his saving word. 

Philip was doubtless surprised to find the Queen's treasurer so 
ready for the truth. The Spirit which sent the teacher had pre- 
pared the pupil. Marvellously has the Spirit been preparing these 
Southern peoples for the coming of the messengers of peace. The 
last half century has created a new South America. Freedom from 
Spain, and freedom from the Papal See! Think what those two 
items mean! It was accomplished only at the cost of rivers of 
blood; but revolutions in South America have been, as a rule, steps 
toward light and freedom. Through these bloody civil upheavals 
alone could come the overthrow of Spain and her ally, Eome. A 
large measure of religious liberty has been achieved^ and Bunyan's 
toothless pope foaming at the mouth in senile fury at those beyond 
his power to rend, is a faithful picture of present ecclesiastical con- 
ditions. "The priesthood — ^there is the enemy," Gambetta's fa- 
mous maxim, has become an accepted axiom by the great mass of 
patriots who are determined to sustain free schools, and a free press. 
They love to quote Victor Hugo's dictum, "Among each people 
there is a candle — ^the school, and behind it a mouth that would 
blow it out, the priest," and popular instruction, free from image 
worship and bead counting — is winning its way. These, and dozens 
of other kindly, kindred influences are at work for the regeneration 
of the land, and are the harbingers of the entrance of the king. 

The Gospel itself has already permeated large areas among the 
Spanish speaking neighbors. Statistics but faintly hint the full 
story of its victories, but many thousands of believers are statedly 
meeting in hundreds of congregations with none to molest or make 
afraid. Scores of natives, full of knowledge and zeal, are preach- 



614 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ing the old, old story in their own mnsical vernacular. Strange 
modern miracles are daily wrought before our wondering eyes; 
lions changed to lambs, and persecutors to preachers ! The days of 
spying out the land are gone ; we know that it flows with milk and 
honey. 

Unless all signs fail, we are on the verge of a newer and fuller 
reformation. The nineteenth century was an evil one for Eome. 
At its beginning, she claimed three times as many followers as 
Protestantism; at its close, Eoman Catholics and Protestants stand, 
numerically, about even, with the overwhelming preponderance of 
influence in favor of Protestantism — Eoman councils and encycli- 
cals are filled with apprehension and foreboding. God has made 
heavy the chariot wheels of the Italian Pharaohs. The Jesuits 
checkmated the first reformation in Spain by exile, torture, the 
dungeon, and the stake. The new awakening in Europe and Latin 
America will be secure against such arms. The claws of Jesuitism 
have been clipped. St. Bartholomews are things of the past, and 
the notable revival of interest in God's word in Europe will give an 
added impetus to forces that work for righteousness in Sou.th 
America. 

The Latin American fig tree has budded, and bends with fruit. 
This is the mature conviction of all missionaries who have kept 
their fingers on the undercurrent of thought and feeling. These 
are men of wide experience, of conservative judgment, and are ex- 
perts in their department, and their testimony may safely be 
relied upon. They unanimously agree that the field is open for the 
.entrance of the Gospel. The corn is ripe, the reapers trained and 
ready. Where in all the world has so delightful a prospect pre- 
sented itself to the churches of God? It is a radiant vision, but 
the "visions'^ of Carey and Judson are the consummated glories 
of the churches of to-day. ^^Let us not,'' saints of God, ^^e dis- 
obedient unto this heavenly vision." The time has passed for us 
to longer stand, idly piping in our pleasant market places at home. 

American Baptists should, in the love of man and the fear of God, 
undertake this mighty effort. Kobly have they striven in the past, 
and greatly have they been blessed. But the great commission must 



THE EVAXGETiTZATIOy OF LATIN AZOIEICA. 615 

be Tmrolled afresh. 'TEvery creature/^ "all nations," "unto ilie ends 
of the earth*' — ^these are the watchwords which mnst lead ns to 
world-wide influence for the glory of our Lord. The erangeliza- 
tion of Sonth America places before ns a field worthy of the tmth 
for which we stand, and of the centary npon which we have entered. 

By every possible means the churches shonld be bronght to know 
and feel the force of these patent facts, the leadings of ProTidence, 
the plain path of dnty. Learning, oratory, poetry, art, philanthro- 
phy, patriotism, and missionary zeal should combine to strengthen 
the force and the appeal of the opportunity. This should famish 
the favored theme, the masterful motif, of Baptist anniversaries, 
associations, conventions, and congresses. 

Organized missionary agencies and individnal initiative shonld 
co-operate in pressing the work at the front. Our Societies and 
Boards splendidly execnte the will of the churches, and are worthy 
of all confidence and snpport. They are admirably prepared to ad- 
vise, assist, and direct at home, and abroad, and through them, 
shonld the great body of Israel work. 

Bnt the time has come for a revival among Baptists of iadividnal 
missionary activities. Hundreds of onr brethren shonld become 
missionary emigrants to Latin America. Many are content to give 
their money, rather than themselves; to snpport, rather than be, 
missionaries. From childhood we have heard emphasized "'Send'' 
and "'Give" at the expense of the Lord's own "'Go." "'Give" and 
^^send" have made ns a people of stay-at-homes. 

We need to return to primitive teaching and precedents, to relight 
the fir^ of lay evangelism, to Train our people from childhood 
for personal participation in the conversion of the nations. Godly 
laymen are doing snccessfnl work in many parts of Latin America. 
Moravian artizans and laborers came to the West Indies and have 
turned thonsands to Christ. Traiiied nnder this missionary sng- 
gestion, there will be many Baptist Philips, Aqnilas and PrisciLlas, 
and Gideon bands not a few, who will '%rise and go nnto the 
Sonth." "They that were scattered abroad went everywhere 
preaching the word." Baptists shonld be trained and expected 
to do evangelistic work, and not to relegate it to the ministry. 



616 THE AMERICAIi BAPTIST PULPIT. 

There are many lawyers, doctors, teachers, artizans, and farmers 
who could find happy homes and successful business careers in 
beautiful Southern cities, and become the centres of precious, soul- 
saving ministries. Preachers not dependent upon their salaries for 
support should consider the nobler opportunities for usefulness in 
Spanish America. Many of our ablest pastors, men of power of 
heart and brain, should give at least a term of years to such a mis- 
sion. They could do great good on the field, and get experience in- 
valuable for their work at home. This personal propaganda will 
appeal only to the chosen, to the few, but God bids us "Stir up the 
mighty men." One of these, full of faith and zeal, outweighs a 
thousand. 

As Spanish is the lingua franca from the Eio G-rande to the tip 
of the Horn, we should set about learning it, teaching it. It should 
have a place in the curriculum of every Baptist college, and its 
definite missionary value kept in mind. Maps, and photographs 
might be placed with advantage on the walls of Sunday school 
class rooms. Should the Lord come he might be better pleased to 
find a church studying a map of Latin America with a view to its 
evangelization than to see them poring over the wadies and sand- 
buried landmarks of ancient Palestine. Many American families 
could take children recommended by missionaries and the societies 
and give them such Christian training as would fit them to return 
with the message to their own. 

Let us then, holy brethren, "speak unto the people that they go 
forward'^ — and "towards the South." Then will be need of courage 
and patience. There are giants in the land, and high mounting 
walls of superstition, but the walls of Jericho have already fallen, 
and the way is open. Garibaldi appealed to a crowd of young Ital- 
ians for recruits. "What are your inducements?" they asked. 
"Poverty, hardships, battles, wounds, and victory," replied the hero. 
They caught his enthusiasm and enlisted We need expect no "cam- 
paign of rose water," but a Baptist Latin America will be the 
trophy of properly sustained Baptist effort. The appeal is to our 
Christian honor, to our loyalty to our king. Bolivar, the W^ashing- 
ton of South America, in an all critical moment once cried, "Pa- 



THE ETAXGELIZATIOX OF LATIX AMERICA. 617 

triotS;, there are not two congresses, one of opinion, and one of 
action. THe times demand the union of all hearts for liberty. Yes- 
terday to repose in the arms of apathy was degradation, to-day it is 
treason.'* How applicable these words to ns as citizens of the Com- 
monwealth of Israel! Our sympathy must be coined into action. 
Our hopes are not mist}' ^^castles in Spain/** they are bnilt on estab- 
lished facts, and the sure promises of Ood. "[Maranatha/^ is writ- 
ten on those Sonthem skies. We can afford to cherish a high and 
radiant expectancy. Let ns draw the Sword that ''Tdlls and makes 
alive*^ from its scabbard. The Churches^ feet are shod with the 
gospel of peace: let her but arise, and go towards the South, and 
"the glory of the Lord will be revealed" unto her, and our longing 
eyes shall see the Southern "^vilderness bloom like Eden, and her 
deserts like the garden of the Lord." 

"Awake, Xorth wind, and come thou South and blow upon my 
garden I" 



618 THE AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LIII 
PEACE.* 



By Eev. Eric Lund^ 
Philippine Islands 



"Oh, that thou hadst harkened to my commandmeiits ! then had thy peace 
been like a river." — Isaiah 48 : 18. 

THE question of the day is peace. So let us also speak of peace. 
Peace is a nation^s blessing. It means tranquility, prosperity, 
progress, happiness, and life. Let us by all means have peace! 
War, on the contrary, is a nation's curse. It means agitation, de- 
vastation, ruin, suffering, and death. Away forever with war ! 
'^'enemies in mind^^ 

'Now this is precisely what is taking place in the Spiritual world. 
Men are by nature rebels, ^"^Children of wrath,^' says the word of 
God, "Sons of disobedience," "Alienated and enemies in mind by 
wicked works." This alienation from their legitimate Lord and 
Master is the cause of man's unrest, agitation, moral ruin, and 
death. "The wicked are like the troubled sea." "There is no peace 
saith the Lord unto the wicked." Therefore let us above all come 
to terms with God, let us seek the true peace with him. 

god's desire 

"Oh that thou hadst harkened." These words of God, the ut- 
terance of deep yearning, prove that he ardently desires that men 
should enjoy peace and happiness. 

Truly so. He has provided everything to effect the rebel's recon- 
ciliation with him. I say "necessary means," for if he had pro^ 
claimed unconditional amnesty to responsible rebels, he would have 
wronged his own laws and encouraged further rebellion. Hence 
the necessity of "the Peacemaker" Jesus Christ, who "once suffered. 



^A short discourse to educated Filipinos upon the arrival of the civil, or 



ERIC LUXD was born in Mora comity, Sweden, October 21, 1852. Soon 
after his remarkable conversion in 1867 an earnest desire to bear the gospel 
to the regions beyond was kindled in hi,s heart, and he began at once to 
prepare for this great work. At first lie tried to stndy Latin and theology 
without a teacher, but the Lord opened the way for him to take a course, 
first in Kristinehamn and then, on his becoming a Baptist, in Bethel Semi- 
nary, Stockholm. After his graduation in 1875 he labored in his native 
land as an evangelist, and then took a course of study in the Ea.st London 
Institute. While in London he accepted an invitation to become a mis- 
sionary to Spain, and in company with his friend, INIr. Previs, reached 
Ferrol, Spain, May 1, 1877, to begin his work. 

The mission was soon removed to Figueras on the ^Mediterranean. Here 
they prospered for a time, and then heroically endured persecution — im- 
prisonment and trial — "for the testimony of Jesus." In the midst of this 
tumult INIr. Previs died, and Mr, Lund was soon compelled to seek rest in 
Sweden. He returned with his bride to Figueras, Spain, in 1881, but the 
next year the mission was transferred to the Missionary Union of the United 
States of America and removed to Barcelona. At this important port Mr. 
Lund maintained a sailors' home, organized a church, and trained young 
men as evangelists. 

•'•'In 1889 Mr. Lund," says Rev. P. C. Nelson, of Xegley, Ohio, "was be- 
reaved of his excellent wife and three of his children. Almost crushed by 
this overwhelming affliction he was compelled to return to Sweden to 
recuperate his health. In 1890, however, he resumed his work in Barce- 
lona. At this crisis in his' life he felt impelled by the Spirit of God to 
make a careful study of the missionary methods of the apoistles. As a 
result his own methods were completely revolutionized, and our Baptist 
mission in Spain has been the most successful and is the moist promising 
of all in that country." 

In 1897 Mr. Lund visited the L'nited States in the interests of the mis- 
sion. The Missionary Union has prevailed on him to give up temporarily 
his work in Spain, in order to establish a Baptist mission in the Philippines. 
In April, 1900, he arrived in Ho Ho, Island of Panay, and began work under 
favorable auspices. Already a house of worship has been built, a paper 
hais been established, and the Xew Testament has been translated by him 
into the Visayan dialect. Mr. Lund is a linguist. He can preach in five 
or six languages and can read several more. He founded and for five years 
edited a Spanish monthly, and then began his weekly, El Eco de la Verdad. 
He kas written in Spanish and in Swedish several books of great value, 
not to mention his writings in other languages. He is eminently qualified 
for the difficult work of translating the Bible into a heathen tongue and to 
be the founder of so important a mission. 

Mr. Lund, about nine months after reaching the Philippine group, went 
to Bakolod in the island of Negros, and continues to preach the gospel in 
all the region around about. May the seed that he is sowing among the 
Filipinos bring forth even in this generation an abundant harvest. 
(620) 



PEACE. 621 

the just for the imjust/' the innocent for the rebel, ^^that he might 
bring us to God/^ and make one of the two. 

The Apostles constituted the first peace commission sent to the 
rebels by this Prince of peace. "Therefore/' says Paul, "we are 
ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were intreating 
by us : we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.'^ 
What a marvelous condescendence! Even an offended God stoops 
down to intreat and beseech thee, rebel, to accept his offer of 
peace and happiness ! 

TEEMS OF PEACE 

But what are the conditions of peace on man's side ? "That thou 
hadst barkened to his commandments, then had thy peace been like 
a river." Through not barkening to God's commandments you 
have become an enemy to God. Through barkening to his com- 
mandments you will have peace. What commandments ? 

The first and great commandments proclaimed to the rebels by 
Jesus and his apostles were these: "Eepent ye and believe in the 
Gospel." 

Eepent: Eecognize your state of rebellion, lay down your arms, 
surrender! Eecognize your state of rebellion; your indifference, 
your selfishness, your inclination to evil, your opposition to the will 
of God, your open opposition by wicked words and works. Lay 
down your arms: Your pride and haughtiness, prejudices, and 
superstitions, lies, and frauds. Humble yourselves before Almighty 
God, weep over your miseries and confess your sins to him in the 
name of Christ. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the 
lowly." Surrender: Change masters, abandon the service of the 
Prince of Darkness that now worketh in the children of disobe- 
dience, and consecrate body, soul, and spirit to the service of God. 
For "Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an 
enemy of God." "Draw nigh unto God and he will draw near unto 
you." Believe in the Gospel: In Christ's statement that "he that 
does not believe in the Gospel has already been judged." Believe in 
the rebel's death sentence, "The wages of sin is death," and "The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." Believe that God would not be 



622 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

jiist in justifying the unjust unconditionally. Believe in the Gos- 
pePs proclamation of peace "through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus.^^ Believe in its proclamation of amnesty to 
the rebels through his blood, apart from which there is no remis- 
sion of sins. Believe thus that only through Christ comes our peace 
"Who broke down the middle wall of partition" and made possible 
our access to the Father. 

ACTION NECESSARY 

But this is not all. The "nationalists" in arms may know the 
terms of peace as stated by the Peace Commission,, and believe in 
them, and yet never come to enjoy peace. Action is necessary. So 
concerning our peace with God, it is not sufficient to know the con- 
ditions of peace and in a general way believe them to be true. You 
must come to action, to a real surrender. 

Therefore my friend, draw near to God and state your case to 
him clearly in the name of Christ: "0 God, I want peace; I have 
understood thy conditions. I repent of my rebellion, of my sins and 
transgressions. I confess that I am unworthy of thy mercy and 
favors. I recognize that I have deserved to die a rebePs death. But 
by virtue of the death of Christ, pardon me and accept me as a sub- 
ject of thy kingdom and a soldier in thy service. Amen." 

This act of surrender will bring you peace with God, peace of 
soul and conscience, that blessed peace which the world cannot give, 
peace in life and peace in death, peace rich and profound as of a 
deep and calm river. In the name of jout ovm interest, in the name 
of your family and your country, I beseech you to accept God's offer 
of peace and pardon without delay. Amen. 



HENRY CLAY MABIE was born in Belvidere. Illinois, on the 20th of 
June, 1S47. Converted at the age of eleven years, he lived a retiring and 
somewhat indifferent Christian life uiitil the first year of his college course, 
during which time he had a very remarkable renewal of his spiritual life, 
which transformed him into an earnest and joyful evangelist. The school 
of the old University of Chicago, where he was studying' at this time, being 
broken up by a case of small-pox in the building, he returned to his home, 
where, with the blessing of God, his presence was the means of one of the 
greatest revivals Belvidere has ever seen. On his return to college the 
same power accompanied him, and during all his four years' course the 
religious life of the college might be said to have been at revival pitch. 

After spending one year in the Theological Seminary he accepted a call 
to the State-street Church of Rockford, Illinois, and was married to Edith 
S. Roe, youngest daughter of his former beloved pastor, Rev. C. H. Roe, 
D. D., of Belvidere. The fotir years of his first pastorate were rich in spirit- 
ual uplifting and revival power. In 1873 he returned to the seminary, and 
was graduated in 1875. Meantime he served as pastor the little church 
just organized at Oak Park, Illinois. 

In the fall of 1875 he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of the 
First Baptist Church in Brookline, Mass., which he served imtil August, 
1878. Here he first came into intimate relations with the Missionary 
Union, and for three years was a member of the Executive Conunittee. 

With his ardent temperament and earnest desire to be useful, he entered 
into all his new duties with the warmest enthusiasm, but they soon proved 
too much for his strength, and brought on a severe attack of nervous pros- 
tration. This was so obstinate that he felt a change was imperative, and in 
August. 187S. removed West again, and accepted the call extended to him 
from Indianapolis. Indiana. During this jpastorate, while somewhat despon- 
dent on account of his health, he had a peculiarly rich and helpful spiritual 
experience, which gave a new cast to his preaching and practical aims as a 
minister. It was also a large factor in the recovery of his health. 

Here in 1882 was conferred upon him the title of Doctor of Divinity by 
liis ahna mater, the University of Chicago. 

In 1884 he went back to Belvidere, his childhood's home, for a season of 
rest. Here he spent sixteen months, and the Lord gave him a glorious 
liarvest of souls. • 

In 1888. after a three years" pastorate in St. Paul. Minn., he went to 
London. England, to attend the World's Missionary Conference. This was 
one of the turning points in his life, bringing him, as it did, into contact 
with the great missionary interests of the world; and after spending two 
years with the Central Church, Minneapolis, on his return he was called, 
in 1890. to the ofiice which he still holds, of Home Secretary of the Ameri- 
can Baptist Missionary Union. Before entering upon his work at home he 
was sent otit to view the mission fields, a toxir which occupied eight months, 
and has been a great help to him and his colleagues ever since. The coun- 
tries he visited were Japan. China, Burma, Assam, and India. He is the 
author of an illustrated work giving an accotmt of this tour. "In Brightest 
Asia" is its title, and it has enjoyed a wide circulation. Since his return 
from the mission fields he has conducted active and successful campaigns 
in the interest of Foreign Missions throughout the Northern States. 
(623> 




nmm ©lm mmm, 



THE STATESMAXSHIP OF JESUS, ETC. 625 



LIY 

THE STATESMAXSHIP OF JESUS, OR XEW TESTAMEXT 
ELEMEXTS IX MISSIOXAEY POLICY* 



By Hexrt Clay Mabie, D.B., 
American Baptist Missionary Union. 

IX this address I have no thought of going into an exhaustive 
analysis of Xew Testament principles as a vrhole, which may 
be conceived as embraced in a complete missionary policy. But 
rather, I purpose to take up a particular deliverance of Jesus^ which 
includes several principles that lie at the very root of the world- 
evangelization enterprise. This utterance of our Lord is the an- 
swer he gave to his disciples just prior to his ascension, when they 
inquired of him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the 
kingdom to Israel ?" The answer of Jesus to this query contains, as 
no other passage in the Xew Testament does in so brief a form, the 
entire problem, philosophy and triumph of Christian missions. 

The answer was given in the words, "It is not for you to know 
times or seasons wliich the Father has set within his own authority. 
But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; 
and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea 
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.^^ And then 
it is added, "And when he had said these things, as they were 
looking, he was taken up.'^ In lieu of his presence, the two angels 
appeared, and gave a supplementary teaching to that which Christ's 
words had afforded, intended to sliift the point of view concerning 
him on whom the disciples depended for so much. That teaching, in 
effect, was a rebuke : "Do not stand gazing into the heavens, whither 
Christ has ascended, as unto one who has finally withdrawn, leav- 
ing his work unfinished; but rather as unto one coming again to 
consummate all he has begun to do." The point of the rebuke was 



*An address delivered before the Missionaiy Union, at Rocliester, N. Y., 
May 17, 1898. 



626 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

not that the gaze was upward, but that the gaze conceived of Christ 
as facing in the wrong direction — once for all departed rather than 
as preparing to come again. The ascended Christ is thus shown 
to be the potency of all the coming triumphs of the church. This 
answer concerns four points, springing out of entirely iinique con- 
cepts, found only in the New Testament, and combines the elements 
of Christ^s plan concerning his spiritual empire. These points re- 
late — 

I. To the geographical center from which the work of Christ is 
to proceed. 

II. To the nature of the work undertaken. 

III. To the means to be employed. 

IV. To the form of the triumph. 

THE REAL CAPITAL OF THE KIITGDOM 

The first New Testament idea essential to a grasp of the plan of 
Jesus, and hence to the true method in missionary operations, is 
that the geographical center from which our missionary undertak- 
ings shall operate should be properly located. Evermore there is 
a tendency to falsely locate this capital. This mistake was ex- 
pressed in the query of the Jewish disciples when they implied that 
Jerusalem should be made the capital of the new empire. How- 
natural that they should think so! Jerusalem was properly the 
capital of the provisional theocracy, but it was a cardinal error to 
suppose it could continue to be the governing center of the world- 
redemption. But this error was not a Jewish one merel}^ — it was 
human, and is evermore being repeated. In the fourth century, 
when Constantino had proclaimed the conversion of the Eoman 
empire, the new city of Constantinople was tempted to think itself ^ 
the capital. Later, when the Latin church had seated itself in 
Eome, that strategic western center, the Vatican usurped the throne. 
Still later, when Augustine had crossed the English Channel, and 
promulgated the gospel in Britain, Canterbury became a holy see, 
and ever since the Anglican church has been prone to regard itself 
as the new theocracy. In later days the Pilgrims bore Christ's 
standard to our American shores, and Plymouth Eock, or its sub- 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS^ ETC. 627 

stitutes — Boston, 'New York, or CMcago — became oiir Temple, our 
St. Sophia, our Yatican, onr Canterbury. 

With each division of the church — the Jewish, the Eastern, the 
Eoman, the British, and the American — ^the temptation has re- 
curred to put some political capital in the stead of Chrises exalted 
seat. And thus the kingdom, again and again, has been thrown off 
its center. Looking outward from such an earth-capital towards 
the circumference of this artificial circle, the church assumes that 
just where she sits in imagined enthronement is the sun of +he 
system, and she inquires how far outward into the remote regions 
she can afford to shine. Meanwhile she prays, '''Lord wilt Thou re- 
store the kingdom to Israel, to Eome, to Britain, to America? 
these, these are the conservators — ours, ours is the primacy — restore 
to us ! restore to us V 

Where is the error in all this reasoning ? Surely, in locating the 
throbbing center of the Christian circulator}^ system in the wrong 
place. It is not in the extremities ; neither in Jerusalem, nor Con- 
stantinople, nor in any ambitious civic or social center of the world, 
eastern or western. 

The capital of this kingdom is '''at the right hand of the Father," 
where Christ sits "from henceforth expecting till his enemies be 
made his footstool." There is but one "Holy See," but one cathe- 
dral chair, in the universe. On that chair sits no earthly bishop or 
pope, but Jesus Christ, the risen, ascended, reigning, coming Lord. 
"The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I 
make thine enemies thy footstool." "The Lord at thv rio;ht hand 

•/ I/O 

shall smite through kings in the day of his wrath; he shall rule 
among the heathen." 

Christ's view oe missiok"s copeexica:^- 

The chronic, ever-recurring vice of the church, like that of the 
Ptolemaic star-gazers of old, is to make our section of a systeni the 
center of all things. Our Christianity therefore becomes earth- 
centered, chaotic. The difficulty with the view of missions enter- 
tained by the great majority of Christians, even in this day, is 
that it is two thousand years behind the times. It is Ptolemaic : it 
needs to become Copernican. Shall we not then put the Christ on 



628 THE AMEEICAJST BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the throne where the Christ is, in his expectant ascension glory, and 
form all onr perspective from the real capital? From Christ's 
exalted outlook, the whole earth is a foreign mission field. There 
has been one real foreign missionary in this world, viz., Jesns Christ, 

In the Copernican view of the kingdom, it is as far from the right- 
hand of the Father to Boston, or Chicago, as it is to Pekin or Cal- 
cutta; and conversely, Thibet or the Congoland, is as near to the 
throne as Jerusalem or l^ew York. 

It is true this mission enterprise has got on more rapidly among 
XLS Anglo-Saxons than it has with onr Chinese or African brethren. 
Bnt it is essentially the same sort of work, justified by the same 
sanctions, dependent on the same atoning blood, wrought by the 
same spirit, as it is part of one divine plan of world-renewal. 0, 
thou proud Jewish, Anglo or American disciple, what hast thou 
that thou didst not receive? Didst thou suppose thou wert the 
favorite of heaven because times or seasons blessed thee first? Nay, 
nay, on thee, England, or America, as on one of the far out pro- 
vinces of Christ's empire, the sun of Christ's salvation early shone; 
but only that thou mightest pass on thy light to thy sister sphere. 
Viewed from where Christ sits, our relation to the yet pagan world 
is not that of primary to satellite, but of satellite to its sister sate'-' 
lile. 

A NEW SPIKITUAL COMMONWEALTH 

The second Biblical idea which we emphasize concerns the nature 
of the work undertaken is this, the creation of a new spiritual com- 
monwealth. The problem of missions is how to produce among the 
peoples of the earth a new empire with a new spontaneity of right- 
eousness in Jesus Christ, and loyalty to God through him. The 
kingdom of Christ can never come on earth till this is realized. 
Eather than to seek this in the large, the tendency is strong to 
narrow the aim — to be ambitious that certain territory — our own 
land for example — shall be exalted to primacy in this new empire, 
as if that were affirmed in the program of the 'New Testament. 
Christ would teach us to place emphasis on the more basal process, 
to plant the heart of Christ within all peoples, trusting for the 
territorial acquisition to come afterwards, as a sequence in a sov- 
ereign plan. 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS, ETC. 629 

The disciples were eager to know if the kingdom would be restored 
to Israel as a people and in their own territory. Jesns virtually re- 
plied^ ''^?ij, rather, my aim is to make all men Israelites/' Let 
us modernize the terms in which Jesus spoke. All the world knov^'s 
with what humiliation and chagrin France was compelled at the 
close of the late war with Germany to cede to Germany the historic 
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. It is an open secret that ever 
since, in her national heart, France has cherished a deep and set- 
tled purpose never to rest until she shall have recovered those lost 
provinces. 

A MODERN PARALLEL 

There is a suspicion abroad — we know not with how much of 
truth — that at the very root of the alliance between France and 
Eussia is a secret understanding that in case France will stand by 
Eussia for some future occupation of Constantinople, Eussia will 
lend a hand in the expected crucial hour when France shall rise 
for the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine. Let us suppose the hour has 
come and France in the persons of her representatives is standing in 
the presence of some mighty czar of the future. She presents her 
plea in words like these, "Sire, wilt thou not at this time restore 
the lost provinces to France? Think of our past humiliation, our 
ancient glory, the present crisis, the treaty-relations. Let this be 
the hour for the realization of our national hope. Eestore, restore 
the kingdom to us !" What elation would fill the heart of French- 
men everywhere if such a prayer were about to be fulfilled ! How 
great a statesman he would prove himself who could negotiate such 
a consummation. What would not France give for the rising up of 
such a statesman ! But I can conceive something greater than this 
for France. Suppose at the very hour when the French represen- 
tatives are making their appeal to Eussia, a calm, mysterious per- 
sonage, deeply in sympathy with France, should stand forth before 
the hesitating czar, and should thus address his French compatriots : 
^•^My brethren, you ask too small a boon ; my proposal is something 
vastly larger than this, viz. : The conference of a power, subtle 
and spiritual, whereby there shall be gradually put within the breast 
of the Alsatians once more, and of all Europeans as well, a French 



630 THE AMEEIOAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

heart! . This subtle power is mine to give. I propose to make all 
men Frenchmen! not only in Alsace-Lorraine, but in Germany it- 
self, in Eussia, in Austria, in Spain, in Italy, in Britain, and even 
in Turkey ! N"ay, more, let us extend this potency to India, China, 
all Asia, Africa, and to the Western Hemisphere, and to all islands 
of the sea, until from among all mankind there shall stand forth 
an elect people, loyal to one banner and one government, a^d that 
forever French !" Talk of statesmanship ! How would you de- 
scribe the power of a personage, the height of whose ideals, the skill 
of whose methods, politically speaking, could make good such 
words ? 

Europe has produced many Titantic statesmen in recent times. 
We think the Gladstones,the Bismarcks, the Gortschakoffs and Ca- 
vours, men of vast powers, who have enlarged and unified states. 
But all the statesmen that have come and gone for a thousand ycar^ 
combined in one have not risen to an ideal so lofty as Christ's. None 
have been able to unite Europe alone — ^not to speak of the rest 
of the world. 

THE MAN" OF DESTINY 

There was indeed one masterly man who essayed to reduce Europe 
to his control. He called himself the "Man of Destiny." He 
came dangerously near succeeding. Having won the heart of France 
he conquered Italy. He subdued Austria, parts of Germany and the 
N'etherlands. He filled Britain with alarm. He thundered at 
the gates of Moscow. He annexed Egypt, and fought one of his 
bloodiest battles from one of the summits of Palestine. He as- 
sumed the universality of an anti-Christ. But JSTapoleon met Ins 
Waterloo. He was driven from that fateful field a fugitive. He 
was seized and borne on an English ship, a captive, to St. Helena. 
There, like a caged eagle he brooded his life away, and died of a 
broken heart, a political castaway. And they brought his ashes back 
to France, and deposited them in the rich brown sarcophagus of 
Egyptian porphyry in the crypt beneath the dome of the Hotel des 
Invalides. I have seen strong men, as well as women, stand about 
the balustrade overlooking that august tomb, and weep bitter tea-*s 
as they realized the cruel irony of disappointed earthly ambition. 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS^ ETC. 631 

"The man of destinj^^ forsooth ! But when Jesus of j^azareth an- 
noiinced his policy of missionary achievement, he had been through 
the portals of death. He had come back immortal, exclaiming, "I 
am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive f orevermore, 
and I have the keys of hell and of death/^ l^o sarcophagus ever held 
in mortal corruption his ashes. The few who came to his tomb to 
weep went away with the most exalted of all songs upon their lips 
and in their hearts. 

Here is "the Man of Destiny^^ to whom all nations, all thrones, 
and all crowns potentially belong. He was the only master of 
statecraft the world has even seen. He came with a power equal to 
the creation of a new empire, with a new citizenship, and a new 
loyalty universal and unending. This was the statesmanship of 
Jesus. 

Up to the present hour how has it wrought ? Let the day of Pen- 
tecost answer. Let the progress of the Gospel during the first three 
centuries since the ascension further tell. Let the work of St. Greg- 
ory, the illuminator, among the i^estorians — ^that of Boniface in 
Germany, of Anschar among the Scandinavians, of Augustine in 
Britain, of Patrick in Ireland, of Columbia and St. N'inian in lona 
and Scotland speak for him. Still on the conquest moves. Wick- 
liffe produces the English Bible. Luther storms the papal strong- 
hold. Whitefield and TVesley fill a century with a flaming evange- 
lism. Then what triumphs came with the last century of modern 
missions ! The triumvirate at Serampore forms the base of a battle- 
line for all Asia. Judson opens Burma; Morrison forces the gates 
of China ; Livingstone and Moffat light up Africa ; Williams, Pat- 
tison, Calvert and Paton illumine the South Seas^until to-day we 
could assembly in one gathering representatives of hundreds of races 
of the earth, none of whom could understand the tongue of the 
other, and yet to the name and authority of Jesus all would devoutly 
bow. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you" — power to bring about a result like this. How unspeak- 
ably larger such a result than that which the disciples asked ! 

THE PARAMOUITT AGEN'CT^ CHEISTIAN WIT^^ESSING 

But what is the means whereby on the human side this sublime 
achievement is to be realized ? We are told it is to be through Chris- 



632 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tian witnessing. "Ye shall become my witnesses.^^ The eiiclue- 
ment of power when it came was to result in one specific thing, 
namely: The disciples would be constituted "witnesses." Doubt- 
less this term has been much abused — narrowed to inadequate mean- 
ings. Notwithstanding all, the term, properly understood, is the 
most comprehensive one in the New Testament descriptive of the 
churches service in the outworking of world-redemption. It is a 
word we cannot spare. It occurs in various forms — 175 times in 
the New Testament, 30 times in the Acts of the Apostles. Our 
word "mart3rr'^ is one rendering of it. It implies a testimony even 
unto death; it may be a life-long testimony; it includes a body of 
doctrine; it embraces a set of institutions; it admits of the use of 
every element of human skill, a great variety of second causes ; and 
it never reaches the acme of its power until all the energies just 
referred to are charged with the Holy Spirit^s might. 

Jesus himself was primarily a witness, the one "Faithful and 
True Witness," as described in the Eevelation. His primary work 
was "not an argument, but a message." When Pilate had ar- 
raigned him and inquired, "Art Thou a king, then?" Jesus an- 
swered, "To this end was I born, and for this came I into the world, 
that I should hear witness unto the truth." Surely there was noth- 
ing superficial in such a witness. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, in 
all the sublimity of that courage, insight and convicting power, 
which brought three thousand souls to their spiritual birth, was 
doing nothing more nor less than witnessing the gospel. Stephen 
with transfigured face, looking. into the heavenly glory, was the 
churches first martyr — that is to say, its witness, whose silent rap- 
tured testimony brought Saul of Tarsus to conviction. St. Paul, ia 
his address to the elders at Miletus, declares that the equivalent 
of his entire ministry, the fulfilment of his life-course as an apostle, 
amounted to this : "to testify the gospel of the grace of God." There 
was nothing superficial in such an apostleship. And John, the 
eagle-eyed, who rose to the highest insight into the philosophy of 
Jesus, sums up his transcendent gospel in the words : "This is the 
disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things, 
and we know that his testimony is true." But in order to grasp the 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS, ETC. 633 

full import of this word '^Vitness/^ in its 'New Testament sense, we 
need to apprehend the personal subject on whom the testimony 
turns. The testimon}^ concerns Jesus Christ, as risen and exalted — 
not the historic Jesiis of Galilee — bnt the glorified Christ, the second 
Adam perfected, who is now at the right hand of the Father. At his 
ascension, Jesus bestowed a peculiar ascension gift — the Holy 
Ghost — to bear his living witness to the fact that he is risen, and 
had been accepted by the Father on high. This evidence Jesus com- 
municated first hand to his immediate disciples, and he comiuuni- 
cates it still. The testimony to this, consciously or unconsciously 
imparted, is the essence of all gospel influence that ever had divine 
power in it. 

Without a vivid apprehension of Christ risen outwardly, and al-'O 
experienced as risen within the soul through the Holy Ghost, the 
endeavor of the missionary to evangelize the heathen world is worse 
than a fool's errand. The heathen will never feel the peculiar power 
of the witness in the missionary until he recognizes that the ser- 
vant of God who confronts him is a man who, in an important sense, 
has teen dead and is alive again. 

At a certain crisis in the experience of Eobert Moffat in South 
Africa, a chief, with about a dozen of his attendants, one day came 
to the mission house with fierce threatenings, and quivering spears 
in hand, to threaten the life of Moffat and his co-workers. The 
chiefs had regarded the presence of the missionaries the cause of a 
serious drought that had come upon the land, and they were ready 
to pierce Moffat to the death on the spot. Mrs. Moffat was at the 
door of the mission house with a babe in her arms watching the 
crisis. Moffat remonstrated, "We have indeed pitied your poor 
people in this time of drought, and we are truly sorry for you, for 
you know not what you threaten. We have come to teach and help 
and bless you; we have suffered from your unfriendliness, but we 
have scarcely considered it persecution. We came prepared to 
expect some triaTs. If you are resolved to rid yourselves of us, you 
must resort to stronger measures, for our hearts are with 3^ou.'* 
Then throwing open his waistcoat, baring his breast, the missionary 
stood erect and fearless, "^ow,'' said he, "drive your spears to 



634 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

my heart, if you will, and when you have slain me, my companions 
will have more light as to what to do." On hearing these words, 
the chief looked at his companions, remarking, with a significant 
shake of the head, "These men must have ten lives when they are 
so fearless of death; there must be something in immortality." 
Hereupon the opposition ceased, and the mission went on with new 
blessing and power. 

THE FORM OF THE TRIUMPH 

ISTow for the class of forces which we have been considering as 
peculiarly spiritual forces, what shall be the form of outcome Ibi't 
we ma}^ expect ? We may depend it will not be an outcome accord- 
ing to natural causation: not a naturalistic evolution, least of all 
such an outcome as one fancies to himself who is in the- habit of 
walking by sight. And yet it must be a triumph. For the form of 
this triumph, as for the nature of the forces themselves, we are shut 
up to the ]N"ew Testament; therein we find what sort of result? a 
true missionary policy may expect to reach. 

The peculiar term which the 'New Testament employs is the v/ord 
"end." In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew this expression 
occurs several times, namely, "What shall be the sign of thy com- 
ing and of the end of the age?" "The end is not yet." "Then 
Cometh the end." The thought in this word is beneath the sur- 
face — it is that of a crisis and a consummation — such a conclu- 
sion as results in a new and higher beginning, a conclusion accordinn 
to grace. 

The prevailing error in respect to this word "end" 15 that men 
think of it as expressing mere termination — a full stop — the end of 
the world as a cosmos. The dark forms of pessimism are associated 
with it. With some people the eschatological discourses of Christ 
have been practically expunged from their Bibles, because they 
knew not what to do with them, and still preserve their optimism. 
Hence, many will have none of them. A deeper study would have 
shown that these discourses are not merely attempts to afford an 
exact program of last things, but they are rather discuissions on 
the genius of the hingdom. Jesus therein sets forth in a variety of 
relations, and in varied spheres how things work in God^s kingdom. 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS^ ETC. 635 

The realm of grace and Gospel has its peculiarities. Within that 
realm things do not work as they do elsewhere. The Gospel to be 
preached "for a witness^^ — literally "iinto a martyrdom'^ — does 
not expire with that mere witness, because the God of grace keeps 
watch over it, so that in the end it proves to be a Gospel for a wit- 
ness and a consummation; a witness plus: pins all that the divine 
purpose in grace may be pleased to do with it, and to add to it. 

The Greek word reXeloco from which onr word translated 
"end^' comes, and all its derivatives abonnding in the ISTew Testa- 
ment, have a imique meaning. Coneybeare and Howson say of it: 
"It means to bring a thing to the fullness of its designed develop- 
ment, to bring to the appointed accomplishment, * * * to consum- 
mate.^^ 

THE DIVINE OPTIMISM 

These ends or consummations have in them elements of surprise, 
as a process of grace invariably has. In Matthew twenty-fourth 
Jesus takes pains to afford the most comforting assurance of these 
surprises. Throughout the chapter, a chapter abounding in ac- 
counts of the darkest woes impending on a sinful world, there 
run promises in varied forms that God's care of his people will be 
such that all these things shall turn out for their advantage. 
Every apparent disaster will be but a harbinger of some new and 
surprising blessing. Wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes are 
"a beginning of sorrows.''^ Yes^, but the sorrows of travail^ as of a 
woman in childbirth, birthpangs, promises of coming deliverance; 
there is new life ahead! They will often come suddenly, as a 
snare or trap is spru.ng, as lightning breaks forth upon the world, 
with startling unexpectedness. '^When ye shall see all these signs 
of woe and distress lift up your heads, for your redemption draw- 
eth nigh.'' The parable of the fig tree is introduced, and teaches 
that great tribulations, accompanied by darkening sun and falling 
stars, by a strange paradox, are only presages, as the budding fig 
tree is, promising glorious summer — a summer full of harvest. 
There is then no pessimism in the genius of the kingdom. That 
which at firet blush looks like it, is only the promise of the higher 
optimism, the optimism of grace, the optimism of God, the only 



636 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

optimism possible to this world as the subject of redemption — ^that 
of gain out of loss, that of life out of death. From thisi point of 
view many of o^nr undertakings, which humanly regarded, appear 
failures, are really supreme successes. 

Far out on a cliff of the mountain you find an eagle brooding 
her nest. Observing the process, after a series of weeks, you will 
find a cracking of egg shells. One who had never seen the pro- 
cess before would naturally say: "Here ife a dismal disaster, a 
pessimistic outcome." A wiser observer would say: "Wait, wait 
until these appearing eaglets are fledged, have grown their wings, 
and begin to measure their powers of flight with the storms of 
heaven." You would never say there is anything pessimistic in 
such a product. The end of the shell is the birth of the eagle; 
and apparent failure at the end of one series is the institution 
of a real triumph for the beginning of another series. "Then 
Cometh the end." A new consummation is on. 

In our earth-born phrase we talk much of "success;" we want 
to succeed. But surely many of us in Christ^s school ought to be 
far enough advanced to know that this word does not represent 
a Bible concept concerning the kingdom of God, nor is it true to 
real spiritual life. 

What we may look for is not the success of our schemes, as we 
conceive them, and in forms which we fancy to ourselves, but we 
may look for crises and consummationsi, crises and consummations, 
just as they have come hitherto through all human and divine his- 
tory. 

MY SHIPS 

Ah years ago — no matter where, 

Beneath what roof or sky 

I dreamed of days, perhaps remote. 

When ships of mine that were afloat 

Should in the harbor lie 

And all the costly freights they bore 

Enrich me both in mind and and store. 

What dreams they were of Argosies 

Laden in many a clime ; 

So stoutly built, so bravely manned. 



THE STATESMANSHIP OF JESUS, ETC. 637 

No fear but they would come to land 
At their appointed time; 
And I should see them, one hj one, 
Close furl their sails in summer's sun. 

And then while men in wonder stood 

My ships I would unlade; 

My treasures vast they should behold, 

And to my learning and my gold, 

What honors should be paid! 

And though the years might come and go, 

I could but wiser, richer grow. 

In later years — no matter where. 

Beneath what roof or sky 

I saw the dream of days remote 

Fade out, and ships that were afloat 

As drifting wrecks go by, 

And all the many freights they bore 

Lay fathoms deep, or strewed the shore. 

While ships of which I never thought 

Were sailing o'er the sea 

And one by one, with costlier lade 

In safety all the voyage made 

And brought their freights to me; 

What I had lost, but trifles seemed, 

And I was richer than I dreamed ; 

No wondering crowd with envious eye, 

Looked on my treasures rare ; 

Yet they were weightier far than gold ; 

They still increase though I grow old. 

And are beyond compare. 

Would all the restless hearts I see 

Had ships like these that came to me. 

HISTORICAL PARALLELS 

The rescue of Isaac off the altar, where Abraham had bound him, 
symbolic of the resurrection, was such a consummation as we have 
been speaking of. 

Jacob's experience at the Jabbok when, with disjointed thigh, 
he passed over to the conquest of his brother Esau, was such. Is- 



638 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

raers exodus from Egypt was such, resulting in salvation to tbe 
chosen of G-od and in perdition to Pharaoh. The day of Pente- 
cost was a consummation. The Lutheran reformation was such, 
coming out as no one foresaw it would. The discovery of America 
was one of these "ends/' incidentally found in the search of Colum- 
bus for India. The rise of modern missions has abounded in these 
unexpected turns of triumph. Carey was prompted, as the result 
of his study of Cook's voyages, to' gO' to Tahiti. But the Lord led 
him by a way that he knew not to India. This India, the sphere of 
operations into which Carey and his successors entered, was pre- 
pared for them by one of the most extraordinary providences in 
the world's history, a providence whereby through the surprising 
strategy of a young adventurer, Eobert Clive, India was wrestled 
from France, a Papal power, and given over to Britain, the great- 
est Protestant power of the time. Surely man proposes, but God 
disposes. Judson went to Burma to labor for Burmans, but God 
gave him and his successors, the Karens, chiefly, for his hire. Liv- 
ingstone was bent on a mission to China, but the divine Providence 
threw him into Africa, where his distinguished career led on to the 
achievements of Stanley's day., And Stanley himself went to Africa 
as a mere adventurer, searching for Livingstone, in the intention 
of his patron, chiefly to advertise a secular newspaper. There 
Stanley met Livingstone. Staaley was himself transformed, 
was strongly moved to translate one of the gospels for 
the Waganda people; and out of it all the God of provi- 
dence organized a missionary movement which fills the whole 
Congo valley and the East African lake district with gospel 
illumination. Talk about "success !" The mere adaptation of 
means to an end, the gradual evolution out of mere resident forces 
of all things good, apart from the overruling agencies of the trans^ 
cendent God ! ^N'one of these great things just referred to were ever 
thus evolved. God will yet bring in His glorified kingdom by ways 
and means yet largely hidden from the wisest of us. Some of these 
consummations are even now being wrought out before our eyes 
in our contest with Spain. 



THE STATESMANSHIP OE JESUS^ ETC. 689 

CONSUMMATIONS NOW OCCUREING 

In a recent reported interview with Signor Crispi, the Italian 
statesman of Rome, he was asked if he thought Enrope ought to 
have intervened to prevent the war between the United States and 
Spain. "Alas!" he responded, '"^Europe resembles Spain from a 
certain point of view. Anarchy is dominant everywhere. To speak 
frankly, there is no Enrope. The European concert is only a sin- 
ister joke; nothing can be expected from the ^concert of the pow- 
ers.^ '^ It was observed to Signor Crispi that we are then marching 
direct to ruin and decadence. "No," he answered, "towards the 
nnknown. Who knows what to-morrow has in store for ns? We 
must have confidence in the future." 

But not only are our statesmen thinking such thoughts. Shrewd 
journalists as well, are calling attention to this same principle of 
unforeseen consummations in the unfoldings of the divine pro- 
gram. The able Washington correspondent of the Boston Jour- 
nal, after the victory at Manila, lately gave expression to his views 
in thoughts like these : "Great as the victory is from a naval point 
of view, and striking as it appears to be in its influence on the 
course of the war with Spain, yet there are other considerations 
looming up to such importance as that far-seeing men in Washing- 
ton see in them the possible beginnings of a new era in the relations 
of the United States to the far East. Said this writer : "The seiz- 
ure of Manila is a military accident; that Is to say, it was a neces- 
sity arising from conditions immediately involved in the strategy 
of war, which, while Commodore Dewe/s fleet was in Asiatic 
waters, was precipitated upon him and upon the nation. What to 
do with this new possession of the United States is a problem, bring- 
ing ugly complications and new responsibilities which our conserva- 
tive statesmen have never before thought of. Be all this as it may, 
the point I now make is that such issues as the capture of Manila, 
events which are ^precipitated,^ called by the journalist Military 
accidents^ — events which nobody foresaw or could foresee — ^repre- 
sents a peculiarly Bible concept, which even shrewd men of the 
world are compelled to recognize. Why should men of faith be so 



64:0 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

slow to entertain such conoepts? They are ^ends/ consummations, 
new beginnings in the unfoldings of the supreme plan which in- 
cludes all things.'^* 

What Crispi was vaguely reaching out after in a kind of fata- 
listic way, and what the journalist emphasized as manifestly trans- 
piring in the present crisis, is what Christian faith better expresses, 
when it says : I am looking for one or many, as the case may be, 
of these great "ends" predicted by our Lord, when eighteen centu- 
ries ago he said : "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in 
all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end 
come." There may be ends and ends; the final one of the series 
will be that described in the Word as "the day of the Lord, when 
he shall come with ten thousand of Ms saints." Faith trusts in 
these consummations, as realities assured, to be wrought out on the 
same transcendent principles as those which will bring on the great 
day, but in forms and ways entirely hidden from the natural eye 
and the carnal mind. 

Could faith ask for a grander program than this? Could she 
content herself with a Master, the scope of whose enterprises, the 
elements of whose policy, and the form' of whose triumphs were 
less transcendent, uncommon and supernatural? It is the king- 
dom for all mankind which he is to bring in. 



*During the very anniversaries in the midst of which this address was 
given there came a telegram from the Pacific Coast to our meetings an- 
nouncing the decease of a devoted and magnanimous friend of the several 
causes represented in the meetings in progress. Through this single event, 
certain annuity funds which through a series of years had been placed in 
the hands of the Missionary Union, the Home Mission Society and the 
Publication Society, aggregating about $200,000, became immediately avail- 
able for various forms of the work of the three societies named. Thus in a 
moment debts also were practically cancelled in a manner wholly unpre- 
meditated by anyone. The great bodies assembled were awed, solemnized, 
and melted by the suddenness and timeliness of the deliverance. In a 
critical hour God had spoken. Another consummation was on, entirely 
changing the outlook of the societies. The still small voice seemed to say, 
"O ye of little faith! Wherefore didst thou doubt?" For his believing 
people God has a series of such "ends" preparing, in varied forms straight 
on "till he come." 



THE STAIESIIAXSHIP OF JESUS, ETC. 641 

In 1ST 3. three years after the close of the Franco-Pmssian war, 
a militarT tribtuial wa5 sitting in Versailles, France, for the trial 
of Marshal Bazaine, who at lEetz had stirrendered to Prince Fred- 
erick an amiT of 160,000 men and 1,S00 pieces of ariUlerr. It 
was charged that Bazaine had shown irresolution and cowardice 
when he should have been strong and tmflinching. 

Bazaine thought to shield himself on the ground that in that 
crisis, the Emperor had abdicated and was a fugitive, and it was 
not quite certain what the government of France was, whether an 
empire or a republic, or whether indeed it had any government. 

At this juncture the President of the Tribunal, Due d'Aumale, 
whose patriotic blood was at fever heat, broke forih upon the mar- 
shal with the pathetic and passionate cry: '^''But France! but 
France I" The instincts of a nation's indestructible life found ut- 
terance in that thrilling cry. France, the nation still Hved, she im- 
provised her government, and to her every soldier and citizen owed 
supreme and instant allegiance. Bazaine should have remembered 
that. 

To-day the church of God is on trial respecting her worid-wide, 
age-long missionary vitalities. She may be divided into many 
camps: she may have varied subordinate interests. Some would 
prefer to express their devotion in one field and some in another — 
some chiefly at home, others chiefly abroad. Many would repudiate 
obligation altogether. Be these things as they may, we who are 
engaged in this war are chiefly Christians. Our highest fealty is 
to the kingdom of God — ^the kingdom in all lands, among all races 
— ^the Bngdom in its entirety. 

From the lips of our ascended Lord, who will convene the last 
great tribunal, let us anticipate the exclamation under which all 
our work will at last be tested and judged. "'But the kingdom! 
but the kingdom ! Have yon been faithful to that ?'' 

The end is not the perfection of any one nation as such, nor the 
mere evolution of the weal of all nations through the one; but the 
simultaneous witnessing of the gospel unto all peoples; and then 
a supernatural consummation on a universal scale among all peo- 
ples, worthy of the glorified, enthroned, returning Christ. 



642 THE AMERICAK BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LV 

GOD AND MAlSr IF EOEEIGIST MISSIONS 



By Egbert Josiah Willingiiam^ D. D., 
Poreign Mission Board, SoiitEern Baptist Convention 

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — John 
3: 16. 

"As my Father has sent me, even so send I you." — John 20: 21. 

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." — 
Mark 16: 15. 

THEEE is no higher study on earth than when we search to 
to know the will of Almighty God, as revealed to ns in his 
Word. There is no better service on earth than to enter into his 
purpose and plan, and make our livesi fulfil his will. Many persons 
are inactive in reference to missions, because they do not realize 
that God loves a lost world, and has planned for salvation through 
Christ toi those who believe. God is the author of the great mission 
work. As God looked down from heaven, he "loved the world," and 
gave his Son not for America, not for Europe, not for any one 
part, but for the world. Souls in Africa and China are precious in 
his sight, and those who now wait in darkness, he wants redeemed 
through the light of his love. As we search the Word, which is a 
revelation of his will, we find throughout, the idea of world-wide 
missions. We look back and see the promise which was made to 
the woman that her seed should bruise the serpent's head. Later 
on, we see where God chose one man, Abraham, from all the na- 
tions of earth, and calling him out, made to him a promise that 
in him the families of the earth should be blessed. (Gen. 12: 3, 
22: 18.) Peter in his great sermon (Acts 3: 25) shows that this 
promise of God to Abraham refers to Christ. In this promise is 
locked up a promise to Asia and Africa, as well as toi Europe and 



KOBERT JOSIAH WILLINGHAM was born of pious parents. His 
father, Benjamin Lawton Willingliam, was a cotton planter in South Caro- 
lina before the Civil War; after that event he moved to Macon, Ga., and 
was a leading merchant there for many years. He was a deacon for about 
forty years, and was known for his industry, enterprise, and charity. The 
mother of R. J. Willingham was Miss Elizabeth Baynard, of Beaufort, S. C. 
She was a woman of deep piety and strong intellect. These good people 
raised thirteen children. Every one of them received a college training, 
and all are members of Baptist churches. For generations back the family 
has been Baptist, and there is a long line of deacons extending for many gen- 
erations. Dr. Willingham was born in Beaufort District, S. C, in May, 1854. 
He graduated at the University of Georgia August, 1873, taking the Master 
of Arts degree and other honors. On September 8, 1874, he married Miss 
Sarah Corneille Bacon, of Baconton, Ga. She is a woman of fine culture 
and deep piety, and is a constant inspiration and isource of strength to her 
husband. Dr. Willingham was in early life for several years principal of 
the Macon, Ga., High School, and at the same time studied law. When 
twenty-four years old he decided that he was called to preach and, giving 
up other pursuits, he attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 
in Louisville, Ky., one year. On January 1, 1879, he accepted the pastorate 
of the church in Talbotton, Ga., and two other churches nearby. He re- 
mained there for three years, and then moved to Barnesville, Ga., where he 
was pastor about six years. September 1, 1887, he became pastor of the 
First Baptist Church, Chattanooga, Tenn. The church was blessed under 
his ministry. A new building was erected, about five hundred souls were 
added to the membership, several chapels were put up in different parts of 
the city, and several new churches organized. From Chattanooga he moved 
to Memphis, Tenn., December 1, 1891, to become pastor of the First Baptist 
Church there. Here his ministry was greatly blessed also. During six 
years' pastorate in Tennessee he received over eight hundred souls into 
church membership. In 1893 he was elected Corresponding Secretary of 
the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He entered 
upon the duties of this office September 1, 1893, and has given his life to it 
earnestly ever since. With what success the records of the board will show. 
In stature Dr. Willingham is six feet one inch in height, weighs two hun- 
dred and twenty-five pounds, and has a fine physique. In his home are five 
sons and four daughters, a delightful circle. All the children are church 
members except two little boys. The second son. Rev. C. T. Willingham, 
accompanied by his bride, went in September, 1902, to Japan as a mis- 
sionary. 

(644) 



GOD A^~D iIA^~ rs' toezigx :^^ssIOXS. 645 

America, throngli Clirist our Lord, eveii to tliis day. We need 
but look at the additional promises, prophesies, and prayers, which 
were made thTonghont the Old Testament, to see how God and his 
people were looldng forward to better things for the nations of the 
earth. — ^'Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
inheritance, and the nttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
sion.'' Ps. 2 : S. "Xet the people praise thee, G-od: let all the 
people praise thee. let the nations be glad, and sing for Joy ; for 
thou shalt judge the people righteonsly, and gOTem the nations 
upon earth. God shall bless ns : and all the ends of the earth shall 
fear him.'" Ps. 6T : 3, 4, T. '•'His name shall endnre forever; his 
name shall be continned as long as the stm: and men shall be 
blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the 
Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. 
And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth 
be filled with his glory. Amen and amen.'' Ps. 72 : lT-19. ^*0 
praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him, all ye people.*^ Ps. 
117 : 1. "And ia that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall 
stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek ; and 
his rest shall be glorious." Isa. 11 : 10. ^'I will give thee for a 
Light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salyation unto the 
end of the earth.'* Isa. 19 : 6. "'And the Gentiles shall come to thy 
light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Then thou shalt 
see, and fiow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; 
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, -ffie 
forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Isa. 60 : 3, 5. Xotiee 
also the vision of Daniel and that wonderful prophecy (Dan. 2 :4A) 
^•'and in the days of these king s shall the God of heaven set up a 
kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not 
be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.'' Eead Micah 4 : 1, 5 ; 
Zech. 2 : 1 ; Hab. 2 : 1-1. These are only a few which may be given, 
as we see them pointing to Christ. If we turn to the Xew Testa- 
ment, we find the angel on Bethlehem's plain announces him, say- 
ing, ^Tear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to aU people.*" The aged Simeon in the temple, as 



646 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

he took the yoimg child Christ in his arms and blessed God, spoke of 
him as the one to be "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory 
of God's people Israel." (Liike 2: 32.) 

Christ lived toi bless men. After all that he has done to alleviate 
suffering and distress, and teach men of God, let ns stand on Gol- 
gotha JTist ont of Jernsalem, and see a throng coming from the city. 
They bring him withont the city wall, and compel Simeon, a Cyre- 
nian, to bear his cross. Coming np on Golgotha, they nail him to 
the accursed tree, and now as the gazing throng look on, the Son 
of God is dying in awfnl agony. The sun turns dark; the rocks 
rend. We can imagine that even the very angels in heaven looked 
with sorrow on the awful scene. Others had turned away from him, 
but God had never left him. He turns his face towards his Father. 
Here is an awful mystery. We cannot understand, even the Father 
of the Lord Jesus has withdrawn his presence, and we hear him cry 
in awful agony, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'^ 
We find the answer to this question in the words of the Lord Jesus 
himself, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." He had come from heaven to suffer and die, 
because God "so loved the world." Let no one circumscribe this 
work, and try, to limit God's purpose. Whoever opposes missions 
to the uttermost part of the world, opposes God's plan, and is doing 
what Satan wants him to do. 

When Christ stood on Olivet, ready to go up to heaven, he gave 
that last message which his people are to keep in mind, until he 
comes again. That message is "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." 

Christ, after his ascension, left heaven, and came back to this 
world as though his work was not done. He came back to call Saul 
of Tarsus, and make him a foreign missionary. His vision to 
Simon Peter, wasi to make him a foreign missionary. His later 
vision to Paul was to call him farther and farther still to the na- 
tions beyond. 

The New Testament is all foreign missions. The four gospels 
tell of the mission of Christ from heaven to a lost world. The Acts 



I 



GOD AXD :\IAX IX TOEEIGX MISSIONS. 647 

of tlie apostles are mostly taken up with accounts of mission work — 
foreign mission work. The Epistles were written mostly to foreign 
mission churches. When Christ gave the great revelation to John 
on the Isle of Patmos, and told him to give it to the churches — ^the 
seven churches named were all foreign mission churches. 

Let us see how Christ taught liis disciples to pray — after mak- 
ing them realize that they were talking to G-od their Father, and 
with holy reverence waiting before him. the first petition that he 
taught them was ^^Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth 
as it is in heaven."' Above all things the soul of the child of God 
should long for the coming of the kingdom of the blaster. This 
is the blessing of blessings to heart, and home, and country, and 
world. 

Christ promised to his disciples power when the Holy Spirit 
should be given, and explained to them that they were to become 
^^witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Sa- 
maria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.'^ The giving of 
the Holy Spirit was attended with the gift of tongues. Every man 
heard the gospel in his own language, and we believe this implies 
that when the great work of the Church is being done by the Spirit 
of God working his full purposes through us, the gospel of Christ 
will be preached in all of the languages of earth to all men. God^s 
purpose is, Christ for a lost world, and, a lost world to hear of his 
love in Christ. 

Now, Jet us consider God's plan as to lion: liis vsorJc is to he done. 
He has ordained that the gospel is to be proclaimed by redeemed^ 
souls who love him. The angels would gladly have gone on tell- 
ing of Jesus after they announced his birth ot Bethlehem, but the 
Lord honored man when he made him a coworker with himself in 
the salvation of a lost world. The redeemed of the Lord are to 
tell to all the world of Jesus. When Christ organized his children 
into churches, he taught them organization and co-operation for his 
work. Every church, if it fulfils the Lord's ideal, is a missionary 
society. The po^stor is the God o.ppointed teacher and leader. 
Much depends on whether he teaches faithfully the hosts of the 
Lord of this great work, and whether he leads them in the work. 



648 THE AMERICAX BAPTIST PULPIT. 

It is necessary for him to have deep Convictions of what God wants 
done; Courage to tell the truth and lead the people; Consecration 
to give heart and life to this great work. These three qualifications 
we would especially emphasize. Every pastor who is worthy of the 
position of God's undershepherd, should have them. But the pas- 
tor cannot do the work alone. The people should thoroughly co^ 
operate with him in this work of the Lord. Alas, that many 
churches do not realize their God-given mission. Some seem to 
thinlc that all that is necessary is for the church simply to live, the 
members to enjoy themselves socially and stand well in the com- 
munity. Satan is pleased when he can get a church thus to for- 
get its God-given work. How well satisfied he is when the pas- 
tor preaches a little aesthetic, theoretic, philosophic, historic ser- 
monet, and the choir performs in high key one of the latest 
anthems, and then the members go home to take their ease, feeling 
that they have ^paid their preached to preach and pray for thom.^ 
Souls are dying, and God is calling these people to help, but their 
consciences are easy. Alas, for dying souls, and alas, for such a 
church ! 

Satan has many a device to keep God's people from doing this 
work which God wants done. 

Some churches will go in debt far beyond their means, for 
a fine house or furniture, building to gratify personal vanity more 
than to glorify God, and thus, having gotten in debt, they remain 
so for many years, dwarfing the spirituality and vitality of the 
church. Church debts are one of the sorest blights on Christian 
activity and growth which exist. They greatly impede the work 
of the Lord. On a certain occasion a mission secretary visited a 
large church; he said to the pastor that he ought to get rid of the 
church debt; the pastor answered that he knew it, but that one of 
the leading members objected on the ground that the debt was a 
protection, saying that as soon as this was paid the church would 
be called on by secretaries and other agents for benevolent objects. 
He admitted more than many would like to admit, viz. : that they 
are keeping a debt to shield them from giving to God's cause. It 
would be a blessed time with us if all of our churches which are 



GOD AND MAN IN" FOKEIGN MISSIONS. 649 

in debt, would arise and pay to the Lord what they owe, and not 
let satan keep them back from isonl-saving any longer. 

Some plead^ '^theke is enough to be done at home/^ losing 
sight of the fact that those who give most to send the gospel the 
farthest are the ones who give most at home. "The light that 
shines the farthest, shines the brightest near by." Christ knew that 
as onr hearts enlarge, we will provide for thoce near by ns. I can 
imagine the person who pleads for work at home, if standing by the 
Lord on Olivet, when he gave the command, would have said, 
"Lord, are yon not mistaken? Look down here on Jerusalem, 
where you recently wept as you considered the lost condition of her 
people; let us work here." But the Lord Jesus teaching them to 
work there, would have said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." To those who talk of the needs at 
home we would say, have you considered how selfish we are? Only 
about one dollar out of every fifty we give for benevolence, goes to 
foreigTL missionsi. This one dollar sent abroad is for all kinds of 
missionary work — paying preachers, building hospitals, sustaining 
medical missions, publishing tracts, printing the Bible, erecting 
chapels, and all else carried on by the missionaries. "We give for 
work in the home land, and designate some for city, district, or 
other missions, some for theological schools, some for publications, 
some for church buildings, some for other causes, and keep forty- 
nine dollars here, and for all these objects send one dollar out yon- 
der, where the destitution is incomparably greater. Here we have 
one preacher to every 750 of our people; there whole citiea and ter- 
ritories, with hundreds of thousands of perishing souls, have no 
gospel preacher, no voice to warn, no one to invite them to God. 

Some say^ ''We are too weak to take the woeld for Christ.^"' 
Let it be remembered that in our own strength we are too weak, but 
that the liOrd helping us, we can do all things. Yet, it looks strange 
that after the 120 Christians in Jerusalem took up the command 
of the Lord, and pressed forward for its execution, and now, that 
the 120 has grown to over 120,000,000 Christians, that some even 
yet should speak of weakness. In the light of what the Lord has 
done through his feeble servants in the past, if we now talk about 



650 ■■ THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

weakness, we ought to be branded as the sheerest cowards of earth. 
God is leading ns, and God will give ns victory. 

Other excuses might be mentioned, but we wish to draw attention 
to this fact, that while the Lord's purpose and plan is to save the 
world through the preaching of his gcGpel, the deviVs purpose and 
plan is to prevent this worlc in every way that he can hy opposing 
and discouraging God's people.. Sometimes he uses means out of 
the church, and at other times he uses even church members them- 
selves to oppose the work. It looks sad when a prominent member, 
deacon or even preacher will oppose the very work that God wants 
done, and yet this is just what any person is doing who opposes 
foreign missions. We rejoice that a great change has come, and that 
now so many favor the work, which a hundred years ago so many 
viciously and vehemently opposed. 

Let us considee together somethii^g ik reference to the 
PROGRESS OF THE WORK. We wiU pass over the work in the early 
Christian era, how the disciples were scattered abroad, and went 
everjrwhere preaching the gospel, and how in a few centuries after 
Christ, the heralds of the Lord had gone from country to country, 
and continent to continent, and consider more especially what has 
been done recently in foreign mission work. 

The charge has teen made that it is a failure. The last fifty 
years have been the most wonderful in development and progress 
that the world has ever seen, and we stand ready to prove from 
the facts in the case that the most wonderful advance of all in these 
fifty years has been what has been accomplished in the enlargement 
of the Master's kingdom. When we come to consider this sub- 
ject, it is really beyond any human calculation. Heaven and eter- 
nity only can give the facts. Yet, we can look at some things 
which will cheer and strengthen us. In calculating success, it is 
always necessary to consider the obstacles which have been over- 
come. These obstacles were not simply in the foreign lands, but 
in the home lands also. There was deep prejudice and strong 
opposition which found expression in cruel wit, keen sarcasm, and 
depressing obstructions, both in and out of the church. This has 
been wonderfully changed. Information has been disseminated. 



GOD AND MAN" IN FOREIGN MISSIONS. ^ 651 

thousands of books and millions of tracts have bera. ^mten and 
scattered abroad, and the people are praying and giving more for 
the work than ever before. The churches have been awakened to 
higher, holier living. Women have organized for the advancement 
of the Master's kingdom. Young men and women by the thous- 
ands are preparing to go to foreign fields. Children by the mil- 
lions are being trained to believe that this is God's work, and they 
take part in it. Schools, colleges, newspapers, and even govern- 
ments are realizing that the kingdom of Christ is to be set up in 
this world, and that to fall in line with God's plan is best. Tele- 
graphs, railroads, swift steamships, international laws and com- 
merce are being used to draw the nations together, and hasten the 
progress of the gospel. The two strongest nations of earth, England 
and the United States, are back of the missionaries. These two 
coimtries furnish seven-eighths of the money and three-fourths 
of the workers. God can and is using these Christian nations for 
his glory. 

But let us see what has been done in foreign lands. Lesis^ than 
one hundred years ago the nations were inaccessible. Pride, lust, 
avarice, and iniquity joined with ignorance, superstition, and idol- 
atry to keep out or destroy the missionary. To-day this has great- 
ly changed, and the missionary goes everywhere the harbinger of 
peace, light, and life. Bishop Thoburn, of India, said in an ad- 
dress not long ago that, since lie Jiad gone out, the door of access 
had been thrown open to over 700,000,000 people, about half of the 
human race. 

Formerly ignorance of language stood in the way; now 421 lan- 
guages and dialects join in the cadence of praise to Jehovah, and 
the confusion of Babel is giving way to unison with the note, Jesus. 
Some of these languages were not even reduced to writing until the 
missionary rendered that useful service to teach of God and his 
truth. A part or the whole of God's Word has been translated into 
all of these languages. This itself means much for the future of 
the nations. 

It is impossible to tell of how hoary superstitions have been 
broken down, how heathen temples and religions are going to decay, 



652 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and are now toppling, ready to fall. Surely the undermining pro- 
cess is going on. It is expressed in the Mohammedan lands in the 
terse but meaning sentence, "Where a Christian school goes up, a 
mofeque goes down.^^ 

Judson prayed that he might be able to translate the Scriptures 
and see one hundred converts. He not only translated the Scrip- 
tures, but saw 7,361 converts. 

Among the Telugus, in 1866, there were 11 baptisms and 38 
members; in 1889 there were 6,000 baptisms and 40,000 mem- 
bers. 

In Africa it is estimated that there are over 17,000 converts 
annually, and the work is only fairly begun. Henry M. Stanley 
said, while speaking of the religious growth in the region of Lake 
"Victoria l!^yanza: "When I was at the lake eighteen years ago 
there was not a missionary there; now there are 40,000 Christian 
natives and 200 churches. The natives are enthusiastic converts. 
They would spend their last penny to acquire the Bible.^' 

India formerly furnished forty women a day to be burned with 
their dead husbands; all this has been done away, and the religion 
of Christ has gone into thousands of hearts and homes. 

In the Fiji Islands the natives sixty-five years ago were canni- 
bals; to-day they have 800 churches, and it is said over four-fifths 
of the inhabitants have accepted Christianity. That is not failure. 

In 1872 the first church was organized in Japan; twenty years 
after, there were 265 churches, 35,000 church members, 359 theo- 
logical students, and 233 ordained native preachers. 

Eev. William Ashmore, D. D., writes: "Among our mission 
assets to-day we reckon not only the number we already have, but 
also the mulitiudes we are soon certain to have. Here in China, for 
example, it has been long work and hard work and uphill work; 
but now the abundance of those Gentiles is beginning to come in. 
In one province alone — that of Fuhkien — the applicants for ad- 
mission in the past year amount to 20,000. Of these some five 
thousand have already been accepted. A little while, yet a little 
while, and we shall see marvels of grace in China.^^ 

The time would fail to tell of the wonderful work in Madagas- 



GOD AND MAN IN rOKEIGN MISSIONS. 653 

car and other isles of the ocean; of the work in South America, 
Mexico, yea, all over the world. 

To-day, with 13,607 foreign missionaries, 73,615 native assist- 
ants, 1,289,298 communicants in the foreign lands, and the num- 
ber of communicants doubling in less than every ten years on an 
average, who can say the work is a failure and nothing has been 
done? 

People like ourselves cannot say foreign missions are a failure 
unless we admit that we ourselves are a failure. It was through the 
blessed truths of Christ, brought by missionaries to our f orefatherr^, 
then savages in the wilderness, that we received our Christian civi- 
lization, with all it means.. What Christianity has done for us, it 
can and will do for others. 

Some say progress has been slow and at great expense. Pioneer- 
ing is always expensive in men and means. When we build it 
costs much to lay deep, broad foundations. In putting the great 
bridge across the Mississippi, at Memphis, the granite piers were 
sunk fifty feet through water, then fifty feet through mud and 
debris, to get solid foundations. One hundred feet of solid granite 
sunk out of sight! But it was not waste, for it meant the safety 
of the thousands and hundreds of thousands who now go over. 
God's work cannot cost too much if done as he commands. ISTeither 
is it a failure. Much of the mission work up to this time has been 
a series of beginnings. Foundations have been laid; but the future 
will show most glorious results. Let us take new courage and 
press forward in Cod's name. 

Some people are fearful that Eoman Catholicism is gaining, not 
knowing that the movement of foreign missions among evangelical 
churches is one of the greatest blessings in meeting the errors of 
Eomanism. Two centuries ago there were only 32,000,000 people 
on earth under Protestant rulers. To-day there are 520,000,000. 
Roman Catholic countries have felt a mighty shaking up. The mis- 
sionaries whoi have gone there have let in the truth of God's Word, 
and marvelous changes are coming. Some one may say, '^'But Amer- 
ica is turning to Rome." Look at the facts. Roman Catholic 
prelates claim that if their people had held their children and 



654 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

grandchildren in the United Sta;tes, to-day they would have 
25,000,000 adherents, whereas the statistics show that they have 
only about 8,000,000 or less than one-third of that number. It 
mnst be remembered that many of these people get positions on 
onr secular papers, and the consequence is that much is put into 
our daily papers about "Holy Church," "Holy Orders" and "Holy 
Pope," and other things which tend to make some people believe 
that the whole country is getting to be something else than holy. 
Let it be remembered also that these people love political offices and 
cling together when it comes to politics. They love to put their 
hands in the public exchequer, and to hold political power. This 
can be seen in almost any city of our land. But with all of this 
when the Catholics come from poor old Spain and Italy, and other 
lands of the East, they meet in this country the same newspapers, 
of which we speak, and which have in them much of light and 
liberty. This helps to counteract the darkness of superstition in 
which many of them have been reared. They meet also the free 
schools, and in these there is an enlightening influence; but best 
of all, they meet an open Bible, and the blessed influence of this 
is to enlighten millions of hearts. 

We should consider the reflex influence of mission work. God 
in his purposes has so arranged that he who gives a blessing, re- 
ceives a blessing. Christ meant it when he said, "It is more blessed 
to give than to receive." The churches which sent out the gospel, 
have received precious reflex blessings which have come back upon 
them. The life of Andrew Fuller will show that his church was 
in a cold, indifferent state, until it took hold of the missionary work, 
and a wonderful change came. Along with the missionary move- 
ment came through Christendom a great revival and the Sunday 
School movement. The spirit which reached out after men across 
the sea, at the isame time considered lost men in Christian lands, 
and carried the work still further, to train the young for God. 
In this country a century ago, it is said that only one out of four- 
teen of the inhabitants was a professed Christian. During the cen- 
tury, with only comparatively small effort in missions, this has 
changed so that now the estimate is that one out of every three 



GOD AXD 3IAX IX rOEEIGX ^IISSIOXS. 655 

of the inhiabitants is a professed Christian, and one out of fourteen 
is a Baptist. In 1812 when Judson Tras baptized^ there were 
173,000 Baptists in the United States. Xow there are about 
4,000,0000. At that time there was no Theological Seminary 
among onr people. Xow there are seven. Then there was Ijut one 
college. Xow there are thirty-six. He who studies the history 
of the rise of colleges will find that along with the desire for Ijetter 
trained workers for God, is found the purpose to establish schools. 
What is true of our people, taken collectively, is true of churches, 
lumbers of instances might be given of this. A letter has recently 
been received which illustrates this truth. Let us give here an 
extract from this letter. It was written by a pastor whose chinch 
last year gave $126 for foreign missions, and this year about $900. 

"The offering which our people made to foreign missions has, 
I am sure, resulted in gTcat good to the church. It has helped 
to greatly increase the spirituality of the members. For some years 
the church had not been very harmonious, and ever since you were 
with us the improvement in this respect has been very marked. We 
had expected to have a series of meetings last spring, but had to 
give up the idea on aceount of scarlet fever in my family, but not- 
withstanding that, we have had many baptisms. The church gave 
last year to State mission $21. T9, this year $122: last year to 
home missions $74.96, this 3'ear about $230 (I have not tlie exact 
figures, but this is approximately correct) . Other offerings are yet 
to be. made. In addition to this, we have paid off a debt of $1,000 
that had troubled the church for years.'' 

If time did not forbid, ntunbers of other instances could be given. 
One reason so many churches are dwarfed and shriveled is that Ood 
intended them to live and grow by giving, and by denying these 
gifts they are dying. 

By the missionary enterprise our churches have become av^akened 
to the needs of those in our home land. A love for souls quickens 
us to greater zeal and brings God's blessings. 

The morning is dawning on nations which long have sat in dark- 
ness and night. The people see a great light. These hundreds of 
thousands in foreign lands rejoicing in God's truth, with thous- 



656 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

ands of others who have gone from these lands to glory, know that 
the work is not a failure but only well begun. 

When men go to war to gain possessions, or hold territory, they 
do not count it failure if in the struggle millions of money are 
sunk, and tens of thousands lose their lives. Shall we who under- 
take to conquer this world for God speak of failure, or lose courage 
if a few men fall in the lines ? Our cause is more valuable than our 
lives. We may fall, but the cause shall never fail till the king- 
doms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. 
Churches of the living God, awake! The Master calls you to 
greater effort in saving men, yea, a lost world ! Herein is success 
and victory over which angels and redeemed souls shall shout in 
heaven eternally. 



JA^IES BOARDMAN HAWTHORNE was born in Wilcox county, Ala- 
bama, May 16, 1837. He is the son of Rev. Kedar Hawthorne, a sturdy 
pioneer Baptist preacher and prosperous planter of that State. Young- 
Hawthorne entered the ministry at about tAventy-two years of age. He 
had received a liberal education for those days at the Military Academy, 
Camden, Ala., and at Howard College, where he took both a literary and 
a theological course. His eloquence early attracted attention, and pulpits 
all over the land were open to him. He filled succesisively the pulpits of the 
Broad-Street Baptist Church, Mobile, Ala.; the First Baptist Church, 
Selma, Ala.; Franklin Square Baptist Church, Baltimore, Md. ; Broadway 
Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky. (of which he Avas the first pastor and 
AA'hose beautiful house of Avorship AA-as erected under his ministry) ; Taber- 
nacle Baptist Church, NeAV York City; the First Baptist Church, Mont- 
gomery, Ala.; the First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va,; the First Baptist 
Church, Atlanta, Ga.; the First Baptist Church, NashA^lle, Tenn., and the 
GroA'e-AA-enue Church, Richmond, Va., AA'here he is noAV located. All of 
these pulpits he filled AA'ith distingaiished ability, large congregations at- 
tending upon his ministry. The members of the various churches greAV in 
numbers and in all Christian graces. His son, ReA^. HartAvell K. HaAv- 
thorne, pastor of ]Mt. Ed and Hebron Baptist churches, near Afton, Va.,- 
is one of the denominational leaders in the Albemarle Asisociation. 

ReA'. Edgar E. Folk, D. D., editor of the Baptist and Reflector, Nashville, 
Tenn., says : "Dr. J. B. HaAA'thorne stands easily as the prince of Southern 
Baptist preachers, and if I should leaA^e off the qualifying Avord Baptist,, 
and even the Avord Southern, I should perhaps not miss the mark very 
far. Dr. HjaAAi;horne is a natural orator. In -person he is six feet four- 
inches in height, with a massive frame, which gives him a commanding 
presence and secures attention before he utters a Avord. He is a very A"pollo 
in appearance as well as an Apollos in eloquence. His mental characteris- 
tics correspond AA'ith- his physical. He is a strong, clear thinker. He is more 
the rhetorician than the logician, more the poet than the historian, more 
the orator than the debater. But he is by no means lacking in the qualities 
of the logician, the historian, and the debater. His style is smooth, ele- 
A-ated, dignified, never Ioav or vulgar. But AA'hile nature has done much for 
Dr. HaAA-thorne, grace has done more. His sermons are not simply cold, 
beautiful, intellectual compositions. They come from his heart as Avell as 
from his head. A large part of Dr. HaAA'thorne's poAver consists in his 
intense earnestness. He eA'idently feels CA-ery Avord he says, and he Avants 
you to feel its importance also. He does not speak simply to please," but to 
move, to help. His priA'ate character is of the purest and loftiest type. He 
loves virtue, loathes vice; admires honesty and despises meanness or 
trickery. In short. Dr. HaAA'thorne may be called the Chryostom of the 
South — earnest, eloquent, golden-mouthed. May he long be spared to us." 
(657) 




MMEi i. tflMT^i^il 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 659 

LYI 

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE 



By James Boardman Hawthorne^ D. D., 
Eichmoiid, Virginia 

"The high calling."— Phil. 3: 14. 
"Spend and be spent."— 2 Cor. 12 : 15. 
"Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." — Eph. 2:6. 

IN" these three texts we have the elements which in combination 
make the ideal life. It is painful for me to look upon a life 
that is large and full on one side and shriveled on every other side. 
I cannot admire the man who is distinguished for nothing but his 
courage, or his energy, or his determination, or his humility. I 
cannot admire the man whose whole life is merged into the pur- 
suit of a single object. I have but little sympathy with the lawyer 
who is nothing but a lawyer — a walking digest of laws pertaining 
to deeds, demurrers and hereditament^.. I cannot become very en- 
thusiastic over a physician who is nothing but a physician, and 
whose name and face suggest nothing but pains, pills, plasters, 
and blisters. I can scarcely respect a preacher who is nothing 
but a preacher, and whose countenance, dress, conversation and 
tones of voice remind us of nothing but sermons, psalms, and 
funerals. I take the many-sided man — the man who is strong in 
many directions — the man who, in pursuing a special vocation, isi 
not unmindful that his is not the only work which needs to be done, 
and who cultivates a helpful sympathy for men engaged in other 
useful undertakings. 

the high calling 
First — "The high calling." There is a calling for every man. 
GrO'd has a life work set apart for each individual of our race. To 
accomplish that work is to win a great prize — a prize that in- 
cludes both present and eternal reward. Your nature isi marked 
by certain aptitudes, dispositions, and capacities. These will indi- 



660 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

cate to you what your calling is. Your own physical, mental, and 
moral constitution should be studied before you choose your voca- 
tion. 

The discovery of yourself — the recognition of what you are and 
what you should strive to be — makesi a memorable epoch in your 
life. When Benjamin West was a little boy, living in an obscure 
Pennsylvania village, he was conscious of his genius and passion 
for art. His Quaker parents, having no appreciation of his gift and 
no sjTiipathy with his aspirations, endeavored to repress his love of 
the beautiful and his ambition to become a painter. They utterly 
failed. His passion for art grew until it raged like a furnace heat. 
He at last overcame the opposition of his parents, gave himself to 
the work to which he had been called by "a heavenly vision," ro5,e 
to high and enduring fame and enriched the world with the pro- 
ducts of his great genius. 

If a boy has an uncontrollable passion for oratory; if he dreama 
of it; if he has an imagination which transforms inanimate objects 
into living, breathing, speaking things; if he has a thoroughly 
responsive nature; if there is a magazine of sensibility within him, 
and he is naturally fluent in speech, his calling is the field of ora- 
tory. There and only there can he be strong and great. There 
and there only can he do for the world what God would have him 
accomplish. 

V7HEN CRITICISM IS CUTTING 

If a man is thoroughly in love with a certain occupation and is 
deeply convinced that he was born to pursue it, he is very sensitive 
of any criticism of his work in the line of that occupation. If he 
is a lawyer, and believes that to be the sphere in which he was or- 
dained to shine, you may joke him about his mistakes in gardening, 
or in stock-raising, or in building his barn or his residence, and 
he will not be offended ; but you could not joke him about any pro- 
fessional mistake without seriously disturbing your friendly rela- 
tions with him. 

You may make fun of a musician's failure in attempting to 
write poetry or to paint pictures; but if you laugh at his music 
you may expect to smell brimstone or to see stars fall. Tell him 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 661 

that there^s a frog in his throaty and that its croaking is an un- 
bearable affliction to people who know what good singing is, and 
he will henceforth treat yon as a publican and a heathen. Why is 
he angered by unfriendly criticism? Because he believes that in 
the realm of music he is the Lord^s anointed and that no man has 
the right to touch him. 

The same is true of the average minister of the gospel. You 
make a jest of his dress^ or of his diet, or of his recreations, or his 
lack of business skill, but if you intimate that he is a failure in the 
pulpit, he must spend a week in fasting and prayer before he 
can forgive you. 

This sensitiveness is not always born of conceit. In most of 
persons it is due to a deep and divine conviction. Men feel that 
they have a divine right to succeed in that to which they feel them- 
selves divinely called and on which their affections and energies are 
centered. They are profoundly sensitive To adverse criticism, be- 
cause they cannot regard failure as a possibility in an undertak- 
ing which they love supremely and to which they believe themselves 
set apart by the sovereign will of God. 

When Jesus was only twelve years old he said with a sublime 
emphasis : "I must be about my Father's business." Even then he 
was conscious of his mission to men. Even then he read hisi cre- 
dentials written by the finger of God on the tablet of his own heart. 
He suffered none to criticize him. He felt himself divinely 
anointed for a divine work and he would not tolerate interference 
or disparagement even from his own parents. 

When a man attains to a true knowledge of himself and a deep 
consciousness of duty; when he sees the path which he is called to 
tread, the great conflicts in which he is called to engage, and the 
imperishable prize with which God will reward his fidelity, there is 
begotten within him a mighty and irrepressible enthusiasm. In no 
vocation can a man rise above mediocrity without such enthusiasm. 
In looking over the pages of the world's history, we find that the 
world'is greatest torch-bearers, reformers, and deliverers were, at 
times, supposed to be beside themselves. There was m. those men 
an instinct as unerring as that within the bee or the silk-worm. 



662 THE AMERICA:b7 BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and the enthusiasm born of that divine instinct carried them not 
one hair^s breadth too far in the prosecution of their work. 

RECOGNIZED HIS HIGH CALLING 

When Jesns Christ said : "Eor this cause I was born," he meant 
that he distinctly recognized the divine and eternal purpose which 
he was sent into the world to accomplish. He saw his "high call" ; 
he saw the mark towards which every step ishonld be directed; he 
saw the prize — ^the joy set before him — ^the fadeless palm and the 
imperishable crown. The result of this vivid and holy apprehension 
was that his life pierced like an arrow through a cloud of aim- 
less lives and never for a moment deviated from its pre-determined 
course. ISTeither the soft entreaties of his friends, nor the fierce 
assaults of his foes could deter him, or turn him aside for a single 
moment from the sacred task which he was appointed to perform. 

KNOVP- THYSELF 

Brother, know thyself, and in knowing thyself thou shalt know 
thy work. Do not give yourself to any pursuit without a deep 
and intelligent conviction that you were made for it. Be able to say 
with confidence and boldness, "For this cause I was born." Be sure, 
too, that in your vocation your profoundest desire and highest 
purpose is to please God. Having this conviction, whether your 
work be in the legislative hall or the machine shop, in the pulpit 
or in the store, you will be strong, happy and successful. You 
will magnify your calling, bless the world, glorify Grod and win 
the divine plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant." 

Eesolve that in your life there shall be no dissipation of affection 
and power. While you incidentally engage in many things, let them 
be subordinate to one great purpose. Let nothing hinder the one 
special undertaking which you believe to be your ^Tiigh calling.", 
Say with the greatest apostle, and the greatest of men, save one, 
"This one thing I do." 

^'SPEND AND BE SPENT '' 

Second — "Spend and be spent." That means a deep and helpful 
sympathy with your fellow-men. It signifies that the occupation to 
which you devote yourself is not an end but a means. It means 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIEE. 663 

tlie consecration of yonrseH in your calling, to the welfare of 
others. 

A man should value his o^m personal career for the manner in 
vrhich it relates him to his fellow-men and the help which it enables 
him to bestow upon them. He is truly noble and great if. when 
he has risen to distinction as a statesman^ or lawA'er, or physician, 
or merchant, or scientist, or artist, or preacher, he recognizas the 
obligation to use his knowledge, strength, reputation and influence 
for the betterment of the world. 

I have seen a man eager, earnest, intense, pressing forward to 
the prize which he covets, but living exactly as he would live if he 
were the only being on the earth, or as if other beings with whom 
he is in contact, were only like the wooden rounds of a ladder on 
which he is climbing to the summit of a building. I can neither 
love nor admire such a man. He may attain to distinction and 
fame, but in God's thoughts he is anything but a great man. He 
is like some of the lower animals which have feeling but no fellow- 
feeling. An ox will eat and enjoy his hay and com while his yoke- 
fellow is d}ing in the next stall. He will not even torn to look 
upon the sufferer. 

A man may have passion without sympathy He may have deep 
emotion without a single charitable impulse. It is not diffictilt to 
find such men. We should not have to light a candle to discover 
one even in the good and pious city of Eichmond. The brute 
grieves only over his own mdsfortunes, but a true man ^'weeps with 
them that weep.*' If you have lost your capacity for sympathy, 
you are degraded as the brute, and much more hurtful to the world. 

I have gone hunting in the mountains, where a blast from my 
horn came back to me in echoes from every beetling cliff and tow- 
ering peak; but there is no echo so impressive, so divine, as that 
which repeats the cry of another's sorrow and makes me feel his 
pain as if It were my own. 

DO NOT LIVE TmTO TOUESELP 

This great book — the living word of the living God — teaches 
us that no man should live unto himself. Under God's government 
no man has the right to live unto himself. !N"o merchant has the 



664 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

right to trade, no attorney the right to practice, no architect the 
right to build houses, and no man the right to edit a newspaper or 
publish a book solely or chiefly for his own benefit. Living unto 
self is robbery of God and man. 

In the midst of financial ruin, Mark Anthony exclaimed: "I 
have lost all except what I have given away !" Cicero, the greatest 
of the Eoman orators, was wont to say: "In nothing do men so 
much resemble the gods as in their kindness to their fellow-men." 
If these men, guided by nothing but the light of nature, were 
capable of such exalted sentiment, how should we feel and what 
should we be, enlightened as we are by the example and teachings 
of Jesus Christ? 

Brethren! If you would illustrate the virtues which make men 
godlike, and meet for the eternal heritage of glory at the right hand 
of the heavenly Majesty, you must look out sympathetically on the 
wide world in which you live; you must study its problems, its con- 
flicts, its burdens^ its sorrows, its needs, its voices of woe, its cries 
for help, and to the very limit of your capacity and opportunity 
connect yourselves and all that you have and are with every great 
movement which has for its object the world's relief and unlifting. 

TO GIVE COMPLETENESS 

Third — "Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." To give complete- 
ness to your character and life, to your zealous devotion, toi your 
calling and to your deep, broad sympathy with the world, you must 
add spirituality — communion with Christ — intercourse with hea- 
ven. 

A man may zealously press forward in the work of his vocation 
and have much sympathy and intercourse with his fellow-men, and 
at the same time be very unspiritual. There are men who never 
look up. There are men who never see the stars. There are men 
who live in ignorance of the highest and grandest realm of being. 
Thousands live in a world which has no sky. They have no longing 
for the supersensuous and no thought of things invisible to sense. 
They make no effort to reach Godward into a kingdom which flesh 
and blood cannot enter. 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 665 

A THREEFOLD NATUEE 

Man's nature is threehold. If yon are not hopelessly degraded 
yon aspire to be more than an animal. Yon covet something 
higher and better than physical strength, physical courage, physical 
pleasure, external beauty and material wealth. 

You want to be more than an intellectual being. You want to 
do more than thinly; you want to get above the realm of reason 
and imagination. You realize that you are a spiritual being; you 
recognize something within you which relates you to the great God 
and the limitless future; you covet fellowship and intercourse with 
the infinite. This is spirituality. 

No man begins to live in his spiritual nature until he is born 
from above — until his spiritual faculties are opened and he siees 
the kingdom of God. To believe in Christ, to know Christ, to walk 
with Christ, to commune with Christ, to be like Christ — this is 
spiritual life; this is sitting in the heavenlies, and this is the cul- 
minating glory of true manhood. 

Brother, let there be a sky to the world in which you live and 
move. While your feet rest upon the earth, let your thoughts and 
aspirations mount to the empyrean. Be spiritually minded. 

"Think of Buddha,^' said a Pagan priest, "and you will be trans- 
formed into Buddha.'^ That is not true; but if any man think 
habitually and reverently of God he shall be like God. 

RELIGION" AND DAILY LIFE 

But while you cultivate spirituality, do not fall into the delusion 
that religion is a life in the clouds. Do^ not imagine that a religious 
life is made up of nothing but pious meditations and blissful 
dreams. There is nothing so practical as religion. It is not soime- 
thing apart from daily life and the discharge of daily duties. It m 
the practice of truth and virtue in every earthly relation. 

The man who thinks that the Christian religion is a hindrance 
to success, in any legitimate secular vocation, has yet to learn the 
very alphabet of that religion. 

I once heard an ambitious young man at the bar say: "If I 
make myself conspicuous as a worker in the Sunday School, the 



666 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

public will believe that I am not miicli of a lawyer/^ What an 
absurdity ! What is there in the teachings of God's Word that is 
incompatible with success in the study and practice of law ? Some 
of the greatest lawyers of the world have been conspicuous teachers 
in the Sunday School. There are some aspirants for political office 
in this country who refrain from any participation in Christian 
work, because they imagine that the majority of voters are not par- 
tial to men who are loyal to their church duties'. Such men are 
utterly deluded. The average man everywhere prefers to give his 
vote to the politician who has the courage to stand by his religious 
convictions. 

Eecently I heard a political leader in this country say that he 
would support a certain candidate for office, for the simple reason 
that more than any other candidate for the same office, he was 
faithful to his religious vows and church duties. 

The belief and practice of the Gospel gives a man a quiet con- 
science, a soul at peace with God, and a heart in love with all that 
is pure and good. Surely there is nothing in this that can retard 
success in any right calling. 

TRUE RELIGIOUS TEACHING 

True religion makes ua honest and truthful, and it requires no 
more time to practice these virtues than it does to practice fraud 
and falsehood. It takes no more time to make a prayer than it 
does to utter an oath. Eeligion is right-doing, and it requires no 
more time to do right than to do wrong. 

Eeligion is from a Latin word which means to bind. True reli- 
gion binds man to God. It puts his mind in communication with 
God's mind, his heart in touch with God's heart, and his will in 
harmony with God's will. If this be religion, how can it disadvan- , 
tage any human being ? How can it hinder his success in any law- 
ful undertaking? 

My brother, if you have honestly tried to attain unto the ideal 
life which I have outlined in this discussion, you are prepared to 
exclaim with David, "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the 
law of the Lord." You know by actual experience that wisdom's 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 667 

ways are ways of pleasantness and that all her paths are peace. 
Yon may have had some dark experiences, but in every one of 
them you have felt the support of an invisible hand. Behind every 
frowning providence you have seen, with the eye of faith, a smiling 
face. You may be apprehensive that the stormiest part of your 
voyage on the sea of life is before you. But you anticipate these 
trials in the spirit of true Christian optimism. You are wont to 
sing: 

" My bark is wafted on the strand ' 

By breatli divine; 
And on the helm there rests a hand 
Other than mine. 

" One who was known in storms to sail 
I have on board; 
Above the roaring of the gale 
I hear my Lord." 

"All is well that ends well." The sequel of your life of toil and 
tempest will be a sweet repose up yonder in the sheltering bosom 
of God. 

"Eest comes at length; though life be long and dreary. 
The day must dawn and darksome night be past; 
All journeys end in welcomes to the weary; 

And heaven, the heart's true home, will come at last." 

" Home ! Home ! Sweet, 3weet home ! 
Prepare us, dear Saviour, for heaven — ^for home." 



668 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LVII 

:n'o moee sea 



By Eussell H. Coitwell, D. D. LL. D., 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

"And there was no more sea." — ^Rev. 21 : 1. 

IN the year 1869 we went up the shore of Asia Minor, and visited 
the various islands along the coast from Antioch to Smyrna, 
and among other places we visited the island on which these words 
are feaid to have been written, "And there was no more sea.'^ 

In the year 96, when the power of Eome had begun to decline, 
and when Christianity had gotten a strong hold upon the Eoman 
Empire in various quarters, an old man whose hair was white and 
long, and whose beard was also white and thin, dressed in the cloth- 
ing of the Asiatics of that period, stood in the month of a small 
rocky cave on that barren island of Patmos. A little cave but a few 
feet square was his home. 

Besides this old man on this dreary rocky island, where from 
his cave not a green thing could be seen, there were no other inhab- 
itants. The only other persons said to have been on the island at 
that time, were the soldiers, who were sent there from Eome as 
guards. And this gray-haired old man, standing in the mouth of 
his cave, could look down upon the encircling harbor, and then 
out upon the sea to the east toward which the land fell off in great 
rocky ridges. And as he came out of his cave he could go from shelf 
to shelf of these crags upward, until he reached an eminence, rocky 
and bare, without a tree, and without a sign of vegetation. There 
he stood so high that he could look over all the other hills of the 
island. 

I can see him, in imagination, as he stands in the mouth of that 
cave. He has partaken of his simple meal of dry bread and water. 
I can see him now ! He comes out of this cave and goeh up, weakly 
and tottering, all alone, thinly clothed, with his bare head shining 




;ll 



:ll i. ro., LL. i. 



RUSSELL H. CONWELL was born in the town of Worthington, Hamp- 
shire county. JMaiS'saehnsetts. February 15, 1843, and spent his early days 
upon a small farm, situated in the most sterile and mountainous portion 
of that region known as '"The Eagle's Nest." Very earlj^ in his boyhood 
he was compelled to earn his own living, and, unassisted, secured the posi- 
tion which he now holds as a ''self-made man." He kept along with his 
classes in the district school by studying evenings while working at manual 
labor during school hours, and earned by daily labor his meager supply of 
food and clothing while at the Academy in Wilbraham, Mass. In 1860 he 
entered upon the law and academic courses together at Yale College, the 
latter under a tutor, so as to economize his time and reduce his expenses. 
But the war between the States interrupted his studies in 1862 and took 
him to the field as a captain of infantry. He afterwards served in the 
artillery branch of the service and as a stall' officer. 

At the close of the war he graduated in the law department of the Albany 
University and went to Minnesota, where he began the practice of law. 
In 1867 he represented the State of Minnesota as its Emigration Agent to 
Gennany, and became the foreign correspondent of his own newspaper. In 
1868 he was engaged as the correspondent of the Xeic York Trihime, and in 
the year following as the traveling correspondent of the Boston Traveler. In 
1870 he was sent to the different countries in Asia by the Neio York Tribune 
and Boston Traveler, and made the entire circuit of the globe, filling at that 
time many important lecture engagements in India and England. He after- 
wards visited England exclusively on a lecture tour through the important 
cities of that country. In 1870 he published his first book, "Why and How 
the Chinese Emigrate." It has been followed by many others of a historical 
and biographical character. He was a friend and traveling companion of 
Bayard Taylor, and his biography of that poet and traveler had a very ex- 
tended sale. His biography of Spurgeon reached a sale of 125,000 copies in 
four months. He has written nineteen books. 

For eight years he practiced law in Boston and gained great popularity 
as a lecturer and writer. In 1879 he was ordained to the ministry. In 
1882 he accepted a call from Grace Baptist Church, in Philadelphia, and re- 
moA'ed to that city. The church of which he assumed charge at once entered 
upon a career of extraordinary prosperity and has become one of the larg- 
est Baptist churches in America. They built a temple in 1891 on Broad 
street, Philadelphia, which will seat comfortably over 3,000 people, and has 
a capacity of 4,200. Mr. Conwell's preaching draws such crowds of listeners 
that for the past six years admission has been obtained by tickets, and 
thousands are often turned away. He is founder and president of Temple 
College, in Philadelphia, a school with eight thousand students. He is 
founder and promoter of Samaritan Hospital in the same city. Here an 
average of 1,200 poor people are cared for monthly without money and 
without price. He is founder of an orphanage for the little ones of the 
firemen and policemen who lay do^^^l their lives to save their neighbor's life 
or property. 

Although he is not an old man. jNIr. Conwell has been in the lecture field 
forty years, during Avhich period he has delivered here and abroad nearly six 
thousand lectures. He was the intimate associate with Gough, Beecher, 
Holmes, Longfellow, INIotley. Emerson, Everett, Whittier, Wendell Philips, 
Douglas, Grant, Garfield, Greeley, Burlingame, Sherman, and others of 
America's great men. He is to-day one of America's most popular speakers, 
and almost the last of the stars who made the platform brilliant in the 
days of Gough, Beecher, and Chapin. He is sometimes well called "The 
Nestor of the North." 
(670) 



NO MOKE SEA. 671 

in the sun, to look away to the southward. John looks away to the 
southivard! Ah! I questioned, when I stood in that same spot, 
what did the Apostle John think as he was looking to the south? 
What were this old man's thoughts, whose sands of life were so 
fast running out? 

He must have thought of Alexandria lying low beyond the blue 
waves. They say he had visited Alexandria, as a lover of letters and 
as an admirer of ancient books and lore ; and so looking to the south, 
he must have thought, "There lies the center of all the world^s 
learning, with its wonderful collection of ancient books, its teach- 
ers of Christianity, its productions of the world's greatest minds — 
Alexandria/' He thought of the pleasure it would be to him if he 
could walk among its libraries again and look into its books ; for he 
had grown old, and the older a man grows the more he wants 
knowledge, and the sweeter is the company of his books. I 
doubt not that John wished to go to Alexandria. But between him 
and his store of valuable knowledge was the sea. Those billows of 
the sea ! His eyes strained themselves to look away to the south- 
ward, over this great sea which lay, like a savage sleeping lion 
between him and his books. All alone, with nothing to amuse him- 
self ; all alone, on the desert island, desiring a book oh, so much ! 
He turned his thoughts to the sea standing between him and the 
learning of Alexandria. Looking down upon the shore beneath 
him, how smooth it appeared. It looked as if he could navigate it 
in a little boat; the water appeared so clear and tranquil that it 
seemed to ^say to him, "Come, old man, with thy longings; come 
launch the little craft, and yon shall see Alexandria ! You shall be 
free! Launch this little boat and sail away upon this glorious 
sea.^^ 

But John knew that it was a fit emblem of hidden treachery ; he 
knew that same water which seemed to woo him to its bosom, which 
said, 'T!t is so safe" — ^he knew that in an hour it might be so en- 
raged that it would dash him to pieces. He knew it was a treach- 
erous sea. And when John wrote the words of my text, wherever he 
may have written them, he had in his mind that treacherous sea. 
"The time will come," he said, "when treachery shall be done 



672 THE AMERICAN- BAPTIST PULPIT. 

away with, and there shall be nothing but faith, nothing but truth, 
nothing but purity, nothing but righteousness. 'No such unstable, 
faithless existence as an earthly sea. There shall be no more 
sear 

John looked to the west. Away beyond the unstable water was 
mighty Eome. He thought of the treachery of the Emperor, the 
blood-thirsty, cruel Domitian. He pictured Domitian feasting in 
his palace, enjoying himself, feasting among the murmurs and 
hatred of those around him. And John thought, "How like the 
sea is Domitian; he began his life pretending to be holy and just, 
quiet as the sea. Until he had possession of the Eoman Empire, 
all was quiet and peaceful in his character. Then how like the 
sea he suddenly wrought himself into a rage, and how many 
thousand wrecks of humanity had Domitian cast upon the shore !" 
John, thou art low, and thou art old, and thou art a prisoner, 
and thou art on a rugged, barren island, hunger and scarce 
clothed; but I had rather be thee than Domitian, for on 
that day when John was looking to the southward over the sea, 
the same sea that washed the gardens of the emperor of Eome, 
where Doimitian lived with hia wife, she, in her jealousy, was 
plotting and counseling how to poison her husband. An assassin 
wa& already employed to thrust his dagger intoi the heart of the 
Emperor, and the Eoman ruler was guarded ceaselessly by two 
strong men, knowing that his own wife was in league with deadly 
enemies. He knew that he was hated upon every side, because 
he had persecuted the Christians, because he was vile and sinful. 
And tradition says, and history denies it not, that on that very 
isame night the cup was given to him, and he died in terrible misery 
in his palace. I had rather be John, the old decrepit man, on the 
ledges of Patmos, than Domitian, the great Emperor of Eome, in 
the day of his greatest prosperity. 

Perhaps John had looked across the same sea to the westward 
before, and it was when Peter and Paul sent up their pitiful cry, 
"Oh ! send us help to Eome." John had loved Paul and Peter. He 
seems to have loved Peter next to the Lord Jesus himself. Do you 
think he did not long to go to Eome ? How often his afflicted breth- 



NO MOKE SEA. 673 

ren in the Cliristian Churcli of Italy called for him. But between 
him and Eome was this mighty sea. 

The next da}^, possibly, John goes up again to the same emi- 
nence; and now he looks to the northward. But now he sees the 
water, yesterday co smooth, all white with seething foam, and the 
angry waves rushing into the caverns and crevasses along the 
shore. He sees that they are white with fury, and all along the 
jagged rocks the fierce sea beats and thunders. The waves seem to 
say to John, "Thy billows have gone over me.^^ They 'seem to come 
with such might! They seem to come irresistibly and persistently 
against the crumbling shore! John likens them to the wrath of 
God against sin. And he says the time shall come when there 
shall be no more wrath of the living God. He sees these pitiless 
waves roll in, and he finds along the shore the broken bodies of ani- 
mals that were caught by the pitiless sea and crushed on the barbed 
rocks. 

God's wrath is strangely sjTnbolized by the sea. But when sin 
is gone, only love will remain. What wonder that John says, 
"There shall be no more sea \" 

It may be that John, as a student of nature, went down to the 
shore that day, and he could see the hidden monsters of the deep, 
such monsters, possibly as are now extinct. 

When God created the lower forms of animal life, he seems t(? 
have begun on the lowest first, then upward through the higher 
organizations to men, and then to angels. But John knew that the 
lowest forms would die, and only the highest and most heavenly 
survive. The lower forms of the sea must pass away forever. 

John, perhaps, went up the third day. And as he went up, he 
probably looked away to the east. I think he looked oftener to 
the east than in any other direction, because from the east camft, 
the sun of the morning, and in the east was the morning of his 
life. John looks away toward the east. He doesnH look toward the 
north or the west or the south to-day, but toward the east; for his 
dear old home lies in that direction. 

When traveling in the Himalayas, I clambered up some of the 
highest mountains; which way did I look? The very first inclina- 



674 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

tiO'iL was toward my home. Yesi, as the Jews turn toward Jerusa- 
lem, so every lover of his own home turns his face instinctively in 
that direction And so John, standing over the sea, looks eastward. 
There was his old home. my friends, what a home was his ! No 
sweeter did yon or I ever know. 'No boy ever had hinder parents 
than he. There, on the embowered shore of the Jordan, he had 
played in the orchard of his father, who was the owner of the land 
and of the ships of the sea. There he had lived amidst those luxu- 
ries of vegetation; there, where he could ever look down upon the 
beautiful blue sea of Galilee, and away toward Jerusalem. 

Prom that place, John went forth to his work in the world, 
and do you suppose that he ever forgot that home? Don't you 
suppose that he remembered it all, down to the very door-step? 
Don't you suppose he remembered the boats in which he sailed, and 
where he went fishing, and the nets in which he caught the fish? 
Don't you suppose that his childhood all came back to him? He 
sees them again! The hunting-camp away in the north, where 
he played by that fountain into which the fish were to come from 
Egypt. The orchards, the fields, the flocks, the caravans! Dear 
sisters and brother! Oh, to look once more on the dear old 
scenes ! But between him and the home he loved was this terrible 
treacherous sea. 

As he looked away into the east, his old home with its graves 
came before him. Oh, to be laid beside his loved ones in Galilee ! 

I know something of such a feeling. I remember in the heat 
of a fever I had on the coast of China, how I glanced out upon the 
land about our hut, and the shuddering feeling that came over me. 
What if I should die out here? I could see the old scenes of my 
home, the old housie, the trees, and the graves. There, lying upon 
my bed and looking away to the eastward, toward my home, all 
these memories of my home came to me. If I should die, I would 
He buried away from ho^me. I remember just then isome one in 
another room began to sing. I heard them singing an old song, 
and it comes to my mind to-day as never before, as I think of John, 
looking away to his old home, and recalling the many happy days 
he had passed there, and the nearness of death. As they sang 



NO MORE SEA. 675 

that old time in the other room, how vividly came before me those 
old scenes of my childhood ! 

"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, 
When fond recollection presents them to view! 
The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood. 
And every loved spot which my infancy knew." 

I remember hearing those words, and then I tried to stop my 
ears for awhile; and when I took my hands from my ears, I heard 
them still singing: 

" And now, far removed from the loved situation. 

The tear of regret will intrusively swell. 
As fancy reverts to my father's plantation, 

And sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well — 
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket. 

The moss-covered bucket which hangs in the well." 

John looks toward his home, and all the scenes of his childhood, 
like a paradise, invite him home; but between him and Palestine 
crouches this terrible sea. On another day, perhaps, he looked away 
to the northeastward, and he thought of his chnrch at Ephesns. 
Until I had a chnrch, I never realized how a pastor would love 
it. John had established churches from Philadelphia, along the 
shore, to Smyrna, and even to Troy ; and he had worked with them 
and he loved them; and as he looked toward them, the thought of 
Philadelphia, of Ephesus, of Pergamos, of Laodicea, as dear as life 
to him, he said: "They are going wrong, some of them are grow- 
ing cold, and some of them are turning heretics.^^ And he 
yearned to go to them. "Oh, if I could only go and speak to them, 
as I cannot write ; if they could see me, I know they would reform ! 
Oh, if I could only get to them/^ And as he stands, reaching out 
his hands over the sea, there comes the thought to him again: 
"There was no more sea.^^ 

He looks again to the west. He has grown more weary than ever 
of life. The year has gone, and he has not heard of Domitian's 
murder. He is thinking that he will not live much longer (and, 
indeed, he is said to have died three or four years after). The 



676 THE AMERICAIT BAPTIST PULPIT. 

sun goes down with glorious radiance. All nature seems to com- 
bine to make that sunset one of wondrous beauty, and when the 
sun disappeared below that blue water, John, looking away to the 
gorgeous halo in which it sinks, thinks of the Isles of the Blessed! 
It was the belief in that day, universal in all the world, that the 
paradise of God lay bej^ond the sunset, and the glory of the heav- 
ens after the sun had gone down, and the glow which preceded its 
rising in the ea>5t, was the reflection from the open gates of the 
golden land of God. 



EDGAR YOUXG MULLINS ^yas born January 5, 1860, in Franklin 
county, Miss. His father and grandfather Avere Baptist preachers. At ten 
years of age his father's family moved to Texas. He was converted under 
the preaching of Evangelist Penn at twenty-one, and was baptized at Cor- 
sicana. Texas, by his father, pastor at that place. He was educated at the 
State Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and entered the South- 
ern Baptist Theological Seminaiy, at Louisville, in 1881. He graduated in 
1885, and a few months later became pastor at Harrodsburg, Ky. Through 
his efforts a three-thousand-dollar parsonage Avas bought and paid for, 
which helped most effectually to put the work there on a substantial foot- 
ing. He made a trip abroad during this pastorate, visiting the principal 
cities in Germany, France. England, and Scotland. He married, in 1886, 
Miss Isla May Hawley, who has become well known through her pen both in 
the South and Xorth for lier interest in missions. She published in 1898 
a book entitled "Side by Side,"which is of rare interest and value to moth- 
ers. In the fall of 1888, Dr. Mullins was called to Lee-Street Baptist 
Church, Baltimore, and while there took a course at Johns-Hopkins Univer- 
sity in logic, ethics, and psychology, beside occasional lectures on other 
subjects. He serA'ed there seven years, winning a responsible place in the 
denomination in the State. He was called to the position of Associate Sec- 
retary of the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, in Sep- 
tember, 1895, in which his influence was especially felt through a series 
of lectures on missions given in some of the most prominent colleges of the 
South. But the pastorate soon lured him back again into its regular work 
through a call to the First Baptist Church, NeAAi:on Centre, Mass., in Feb- 
ruary, 1896. This is an aristocratic suburb, called the "Garden City of 
Boston," with elegant homes, beautiful lawns, and all the appointments of 
culture. The church building at ISTewiion Centre is a beautiful one of brown 
stone, Romanesque style of architecture, costing one hundred thousand dol- 
lars. The church is so built as to accommodate the commencement exer- 
cises of the Xewton Theological Institution, which is located at Ne^^iion 
Centre. The work of Dr. Mullins there was signally blessed, resulting in a 
large number of baptisms and marked spiritual power in the membership. 
On June 29. 1899, he was elected President of the Southern Baptist Theologi- 
cal Seminar}', at Louisville, Ky., and began his work there October 1, 1899, 
at the opening of the session. 
(677) 




Ei^^^ V. 



;, i. i., LL i< 



SPIEITUAI. SQYERKTGyrY. 679 

LVIII 
SPIEITrAL SOTEBEIGyTT 



By Edgae Y00.-G :^Ii-i.Lixs, D. D., LL. D.. 
Soutlieni Baptist Theological Seminarr 

'Ti je abide in me, and my words abide in yon, ask whatsoerer je will 
and it shall be done onto yon." — Jno. 15: 7. 

THE chapters in this portion of the gospel of John have been 
fitly called the "'Holy of Holies of the JS^ew Testament^ 
Jesns here disclt^es to the disciples some of the deepest and most 
precioTis of the truths of the revelation which he bronght to men. 
The wortib of the text stiggest the theme — Spiiitoal Sovereignty. 

L Xotice, first, that the belieTers spiritual priTil^e is stated 
in terms of sorereignty. ^^'IVTiatsoever ye mM shall be done.^ It 
does no violence to the meaning to take these words by themselves, 
if we give due emphasis to their connection, as — e sLsH i:. Noth- 
ing could be more stiggeitive of our spiritual privilege iiiaii these 
vrords of Christ : "IVhat ye wilL" 

r_ T^ Tif— 5 have been held as to man's place in the tmiverse. 
One oi : Ltt lentifies hiTn with matter. He is no more than a 
temporal - ...rifestation of forces which reside in the material 
world- Another supposes that the goal of man is re-absorptkm in 
God- EQs i:i _ : :— is to be quenched. It is to perish in God 
as a bottle :i ^^i.i .:ses its form when broken in the sea- The 
third and true view makes of hiTn a spiritual being and his indi- 
viduality a permanent gift of God. As such he is capable of will- 
ing things which come to pass and becomes at least a secondary 
cause. Sovereignty was the primal gift ia Ihe garden. ^'Have do- 
minion over the earth*' was (rod's command. In Christ that lost 
sovereignty is to be restored and in a far higher f orm. 

Of course, the supreme and ntost blessed fact of life is the sov- 
ereignty of (jod- Trace the natural history of the planet, or the 
historv of man, or trace votir historv as an individual, and if it 



680 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

is given to you to see truly you will find yourself in each case stand- 
ing beneath the great white throne on which eternal righteousness 
and eternal love have reigned from the beginning. God is the 
ultimate fact^ and the supreme present reality in any just view of 
life or nature. Hence^, whatever sovereignty is assigned to man is 
subordinate, and is restricted within the limits of the higher fact. 
It is this derived sovereignty of the believer which Jesus is here 
declaring. The fact that his throne overshadows ours is the pledge 
of the blessedness and fruitfulness of that which we occupy, and 
which cauGes eternal benedictions to descend upon our heads, and 
which directs the course of eternal events towards the issues which 
we seek. 

In the passage before us Jesus is seeking to place crowns upon 
reluctant brows. Men who are blinded by unbelief listen to words 
which are almost meaningless to them. "If ye ask anything in 
my name I will do it.^^ "This is the will of the Father that he 
bear much fruit." "Greater works than these shall ye do, because 
I go unto the Father." After the transfiguration at the foot of 
the Mount the father of the demoniac boy has his own words of 
petition to Jesus turned back upon him. "If thou canst," says 
Jesus. He means : "It isi not a question of my power, but of your 
faith." Here as there Jesus would shock disciples into a sense of 
sovereignty by the vigor and even paradox of his words. 

II. ISTotice, as the second step, that sovereignty is defined in terms 
of prayer. "Ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you." 
It is clear then that we are to work our own will only as we seek 
it by way of God's throne. But prayer becomes in the light of 
this truth, not an abnormal thing interjected into the world, and 
interfering with its orderly course, but rather the supreme instru- 
ment of man's sovereignty and God's own predestined arrangement. 

Looking away for a moment now from the teaching to the facts 
of Christian experience, we find that the point at which Jesus fixes 
our spiritual sovereignty is the point at which the average believer 
most feels his lack of power, namel}^, prayer. Other forms of 
power the Christian world has mastered in large measure, but it 
needs, most of all to-day, to learn in the school of prayer, because 



SPIRITUAL SOVZEZIGXTT. 681 

a breakdoTHi of power at tliis point means arrested development 
and wasted power in other directions. 

]Srote some of the causes of failure at this vital point. Prayer 
moves up and down as upon the rounds of a ladder, and its effect- 
iveness and sweep depend upon its motive and elevation of view. 
It may be the mere petition of infancy, the inarticulate, vague and 
unintelligent cry of mere desire ; or the more definite but capricious 
request of childhood: or the definite and rational but selfish pe- 
tition of youth; or the rational, definite, unselfish request of ma- 
ture life. On its lower planes prayer is often a mere device for 
wresting something from Grod^s hands, an attempt to trick Provi- 
dence tato bestowing a blessing. It thus becomes a kind of spir- 
itual fish-hook, baited with a scriptural promise, and dropped into 
the sea of Providence in the hope that the blessing vrill be caught. 

Then, too, sovereignty in prayer is often undermined by the 
subtle unbelief which grows out of the supposed reign of law, so 
prevalent in our scientific age. Men forget that personality has 
a place in the world as well as law. A man is more than a law, 
and he stands beside the pathway along which nature walks and 
often interferes and determines the results of her working. Xa- 
tore^s law demands that an edifice in fiames shall be reduced to 
ashes. Man takes a hand in the course of events, and by a stream 
of water from his fire engine defeats that purpose of nature. Hu- 
man personality discovers the antitoxin and injects it into the dis- 
eased body, and by utilizing one law of nature defeats the operation 
of another which sent the disease germ on its mission of death. 
G-od, the supreme PersonaKty, has ordaiaed that a place for 
prayer shall abide as a partt>i his established order. 

Another subtle foe to sovereignty in prayer is the theory that 
it is a mere spiritual refiex. God does not answer, but the soul 
receives an access of spiritual power by the simple exercise of 
prayer. '^Endow a jack-knife with divine attributes in imagina- 
tion, pray to it, and you will get all the benefit of prayer,^^ said 
an infidel. But the theory of reflex breaks dovm in practical ex- 
perience in other spheres. Artists travel across the sea to study 
the Moses of Michael Angelo. Whv not take a handful of clay 



682 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

and fashion any kind of crude figure as a representation of the 
statue of the great sculptor, and reap the benefit of an artistic 
reflex from the contemplation of this substitute? Artists know 
that true culture in art arises, not as a reflex from the contem- 
plation of an imaginary, but as a development from the study of 
the real painting or statue. A falsehood enacted in the spiritual 
attitude of prayer caimot help the soul, even as a reflex. ISTo sov- 
ereignty is possible in prayer until it is grasped and held as a tri- 
umphant certainty of the spiritual life. 

Dr. Phelps has shown how insincerity is another foe to prayer- 
life. "A man may be a good devotee, but a dishonest suppliant,^^ 
says he. "When he leaves the height of meditative abstraction, 
and, as we say in our Saxon phrase, comes to himself^ he may find 
that his true character, his real ©elf, is no petitioner at all. His 
devotions have been dramatic. He has not really desired that God 
would give heed to him for any other purpose than to give him an 
hour of pleasurable devotional excitement. An envious Christian 
prays with becoming devoutness that God will impart to him a 
generous, loving spirit and a conscience void of offense to all men. 
His prayer goes on glibly until conscience grows impatient, and re- 
minds him of certain of his equals whose prosperity stirs up within 
him that envy which is the rottenness of the bones. What then? 
Very probably he quits that subject of prayer, and passes to an- 
other on which conscience is not so eagle-eyed.^^ The ambitious 
Christian who prays for a forgiving spirit, the luxurious Christian 
who prays for a spirit of self-denial are all subject to the same 
danger when they utter their petitions with an insincere motive. 
Each is in danger of being driven from covert to covert of prayer 
while the clouds of separation settle down upon the soul and shut 
out the light and joy of the divine presence. 

III. Observe in the third place that prayer is defined in terms 
of fellowship. "// ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ask 
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.^' Fellowship is sym- 
pathetic intercourse between individuals. It is the sweetest of 
all the aspects of personal relationship. Most thoughtful people 
will own that their most precious pof^sessions are life's fellowships. 



SPIRITUAL SOVEEEIGXTT. 683 

He is richest who has most of them. They are manifold in form. 
Those between husband and wife, parent and child, brother and 
sister, friend and friend are among the most common. Jesus 
gathers all these up into one when he says: "Whosoever shall do 
the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, my sister 
and mother.'^ 

To abide in Christ and to permit Christ's Word to abide in us 
brings us the richest fellowship of which human nature is capable. 
All that is best in the human fellowships is summed up in the 
fellowship with Christ. Xow, prayer, in which our spiritual sov- 
ereignty resides is, first of all, based on fellowship with God in 
Christ. All the elements of prayer may be reduced to forms of 
fellowship. Faith, without which prayer is ineffectual, is the fel- 
lowship of union with God in our spiritual life. Adoration, 
thanksgiving, and praise, which are necessary elements of prayer, 
are forms of fellowship in which the soul, with open eyes and re- 
sponsive heart, declares its insight into the divine character. In- 
sight and appreciation are fellowship. Obedience and good works, 
which are also conditions of the most successful prayer, are forms 
of fellowship with God. "Son, go work in my vineyard'^ is the 
command of the Father. All obedience in Christianity is filial; 
it is the glad toil of the son for the Father. Fellowship is not pos- 
sible between slave and master unless a deeper and more intimate 
relation also exists. Fellowship with Christ then, which involves 
insight, appreciation, s}mipathy, lies at the foundation of prayer 
in its highest form. It is when we catch the spirit of Christ, see 
things from his point of view, yield ourselves to his plans and 
purposes, that we truly abide in him. 

We are able now to understand how fellowship transforms prayer 
into a higher thing than it is in the Life of the average Christian. 
!N'ote 'Some of the ways in which this is done and how the believer 
rises to the height of spiritual sovereignty in Christ. 

For one thing it corrects the lower and false views of prayer. 
It is at once seen that law does not reign over all things else in 
nature. Personal existence, and personal relationships are as 
fixed and immutable as an}i:hing else in God's universe. Room was 



684 THE AMEBICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

made for them when the foimdation of the world was laid. All 
the necessities growing out of personal relations, including prayer 
and its answer, were provided for in the plan of the universe, so 
that men, who are made in God^s image, may link themselves to 
God, and like him, accomplish results outside the regular order 
of nature; but without reversing any of God's plan as to nature. 
Prayer is not an alien in the universe. It has ever been and will 
continue to be a native citizen in the republic of forces. 

Then, too, fellowship will resu.lt in the believer's rising from 
the pauper spirit to the spirit of heirship and proprietorship. The 
true petitioner does not seek to wrest a gift from the heads of a 
reluctant God. He simply claims what is already his. Prayer is 
the act of fellowship in which he rises to a consciousness of his 
joint ownership with God. He is not a beggar, now that he has 
been adopted into God's family through faith in Christ. "To come 
boldly to the throne of grace" is simply to exercise the courage 
which is warranted by God's full provision for the joint heirs of 
Jesus Christ. It is fellowship which lifts prayer from being a 
mere emergency arrangement into a permanent attitude of the 
soul. Sometimes prayer is like a note dropped in an expressman's 
box. We need a service which the expressman can render, but his 
system of work, his aims, and plans do not touch our lives at any 
other point. The highest prayer is not the contact between the 
circle of my life and that of God's life at a single point on the 
circumference. It is rather the point of contact at the center when 
my life has become concentric with God's. Contact with him by 
fellowship at every point in my life, gives me sovereignty in peti- 
tion. 

Again, fellowship with God in Christ makes our prayers the ex- 
pression of the divine good will towards men. Thus we do not &o 
much go up to God in prayer, as if we lived apart from him, as 
we go out from God in our loving desires for others. Our petitions 
then become the out breathing of God's own desires, plan, and 
purposes. Dwelling with him, breathing the atmosphere of his 
presence we absorb his intentions into our very being. This ac- 
counts for the wonderful sweep, and power of the prayers of the 



SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGNTY. 685 

Apostle Paul. He dwelt so near to God that the expulsive power 
of divine love kept sending him back in his desires for the blessing 
of men. He was borne outward constantly, because he could not 
touch God without imbibing the divine desire to impart itself. 

Thus it comes about that a true prayer often marks a new era 
in the kingdom of God on earth. God employs men to do his 
work. A human will and affection and intellect he makes his 
chariot, and rides forth to new victories. The Eeformation took 
place in the inner life of Luther before it became a historic fact. 
A divine purpose crystallized in a human consciousness, and then 
by fellowship with that man, God changed the history of the 
world. The prayer-life in which the apostle reformer or worker, 
holds intercourse with God, is the deep foundation on which all 
great spiritual movements rest. Fellowship with God in his ripen- 
ing purpose distinguishes the Paul, the Luther, or the Knox. 

We rise to a sense of sovereignty in prayer only as we strive 
towards those ends which God is seeking. But in many a spiritual 
life there has come a distinct sense of new power as it reached 
out for God and the objects of his kingdom. When the cost to ua 
in sacrifice and energy, and purpose, have become a slight thing in 
comparison with what we seek, thfs sense of power in prayer is 
likely to arise, and when it does we realize the full meaning of 
the words : "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even 
our f aith,^^ and of those of the text, "if ye abide in me and my words 
abide in you, ask what we will and it shall be done unto you.^^ 



686 THE AMEEICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LIX 

THE SECEET OF VICTOEY 



By Augustus H. Strong^ D..D., LL. D., 
Eochester Theological Semmary. 

"And they overcame him [that is, Satan] becaiise of the blood of the 
Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony : and they loved not their 
lives unto the death." — Rev. 12: 11. 

THE chapter from which I take this text is one of the most 
mysterious chapters of a mysterious book. I make no at- 
tempt to explain it, except so far as to say that it seems to me a 
highly figurative de^^cription of the moral conflict of humanity. 
Whether definite historical events are indicated, I am not sure — 
I am only sure that the principles and the result of the struggle 
are made plain to us. The context shows that we have here a 
picture, not of the future only, but also of the present. Satan 
comes down in great power and in great wrath, but he is over- 
thrown and cast out and the saints of God triumph over him. 
And the words upon which I am commenting give the explana- 
tion of their triumph: They overcome him because of the blood 
of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. So we 
have suggested to us a great theme : the secret of victory for 
THE CHRISTIAN AND THE CHURCH; and also the two divisions of 
that theme, (1) the blood of the Lamb, (2) the Christian's testi- 
mony thereto, as the elements of that secret. 

They overcame because of the blood of the Lamb. I cannot stay ' 
to prove, and I do not need to prove, that the blood of the Lamb 
does not mean the mere example of Clirist. The lamb was the 
lamb of sacrifice, of whom John saysi: "I saw a lamb, as it had 
been slain.'' The purity of the lamb was incidental; the blood of 
the lamb was essential. It is the crucified Saviour who is here set 
forth as the secret of the Christian's triumph. And that for three 




mmm u. itmm^, b, §., ll 



AUGUSTUS HOPKIXS STRONG was born in Rochester, N. Y., August 
3, 1836. He graduated from Yale College in ISoT and from the Rochester 
Theological Seminary in 1859; traveled in Europe 1859-'60; was ordained 
as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Haverhill,' Mass., August 3, 1861, 
and retained this pastorate until 1865: was pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, Cleveland, Ohio, from 1865 to 1872, when he was called to be 
president of the Rochester Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical 
Theologj^ in the same institution, which office he has held continuously for 
the past twenty-nine years. He served as president of the American Bap- 
tist Missionary Union from 1892 to 1895. He is the author of "Systematic 
Theology," which has paissed through six editions ; of "Philosophy and 
Religion," both of these works published by Messrs. A. C. Armstrong & Son, 
:N'ew York City; of "The Great Poets and their Theology," and of "Christ 
and Creation and Ethical Monism," these last two published by the American 
Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia. He received the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity from Brown University in 1870, from Yale University in 1890, 
and from Princeton University in 1896, and the degree of Doctor of Laws 
from Bucknell University in 1891. 
(68S) 



THE SECRET OF YICTOEY. 689 

reasons. The first of them is this: The atonement of Christ 
removes the greatest obstacle to success in our conflict with evil, 
namely, the guilt of our past sins.. The bankrupt cannot hopefully 
begin a new business until his past debts are provided for. When 
I told a convicted inquirer that he could lead a new life, he turned 
upon me almost fiercely, and said: "That is not what I want — I 
have a debt to pay first I'' And he was right. The accumulated 
burden of past transgression must somehow be removed, or a man 
will never have the heart to begin a life of righteousness. The 
justice of God which conscience only reflects must be satisfied. 
Eeparation must be made to God himself, or there can be no 
peace within. And the consciousness of utter inability to make this 
reparation, to pay this debt, to remove this guilt, weighs down the 
soul. 

But what the sinner cannot do for himself, Christ does for him. 
The blood of Christ answers to God on his behalf, paj^s his debt, re- 
moves his guilt. As Charnock has said : "He who once quenched 
the violence of fire for those Hebrew children has also quenched 
the fires of God's anger against the sinner, hotter than furnace 
seven times heated." Christ is the mediator between God and man 
only because he is first the mediator between the just God and the 
merciful God. Since conscience is but the mirror of God's holiness, 
nothing can satisfy an offended conscience but what has first satis- 
fied an offended God. But when God is satisfied, conscience is satis- 
fied. One of our modern preachers has expressed it in these words : 
"As the high priest carried the blood into the Holy of Holies in 
connection with the old dispensation, so does the Spirit take the 
blood of Christ into the inner sanctuary of our spirit in the new 
dispensation, in order that he may cleanse our conc-cience from 
dead works to serve the living God.'' The hpnns "Jesus paid it all. 
All the debt I owe," and ''1 lay my sins on Jesus, The spotless I^amb 
of God, He bears them all and frees From the accursed load," are 
only declarations of the same truth which the heathen convert ex- 
pressed when he said that his guilt rose like a mountain before him 
and utterly closed the way to heaven, but the mountain vanished 
when there fell upon it one red drop of Jesus' blood. 



690 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

I am not going now to explain the atonement of Christ, if indeed 
a perfectly -unique fact like this can be explained. I give only a 
very imperfect illustration and then pass on. A young man hound 
by promise of marriage to a noble girl proves -unfaithful, and his 
sin, falling upon her, crnshes her pnre soul to the earth. To all 
intents and purposes she dies. But her sorrow touches his heart 
and makes a new man of him. He repents and returns. And 
she, out of the fullness of a generous heart, forgives the past and 
marries him. Her sorrow has shown him his sin and has recovered 
him from it; while his penitent return, and glad acceptance of her 
forgiveness, have blotted out the past and have made possible a new 
life. 'Now put Christ, the manifested God, in the girPs place; put 
your sins in place of that young man's unfaithfulness; then his 
death becomes your atonement, and your union with the Lord 
clears your guilt and makes his atonement yours. The bJood of 
Christ is the secret of victory for us because it removes our first 
and greatest obstacle, namely, the guilt of our past sins, and 
reconciles us with God. 

But the blood of Christ is also the secret of victory because it 
furnishes an all-powerful motive to effort. The attraction of sin 
is great and the sluggishness of the soul is greater still. We have 
no moral earnestness by nature. N'othing runs itself in this v»'Orld, 
unless it is going down hill. There are a plenty of moral ideas 
in man's reason; but unless some superhuman motive is presented, 
they are not actualized in man's will. The blood of Christ fur- 
nishes that superhuman motive. When I see the crucified Saviour, 
and realize that it was "my sins gave sharpness to the nails and 
pointed every thorn," then sin loses its attraction to me, and the 
love of Christ constrains me to love him and serve him in return. 
In his early days Martin Luther was found by one of his friends 
sobbing before a crucifix, while he exclaimed: '^^Eiir mich? fiir 
mich?" — "For me? for me?" How can I sin against this Saviour 
who has endured the cross on my behalf ? The love of Christ has 
enabled many a man to break the fetters with which Satan had 
held him fast bound, and he overcomes through the blood of the 
Lamb. 



THE SECRET OF VICTORY. 691 

Not less is it true that every onward movement against the 
forces of evil in the world finds its motive here. Other motives fail 
to work at the critical time, but this one leads to deeds of heroism 
and self-sacrifice -that bear everything before them. This makes 
Paul say : "I am in debt both to the Greek and to the barbarian.'^ 
He will preach the gospel even in Eome, though he knows that 
preaching will lead to a martyr's death. On the last birthday bnt 
one before he died, Dr. Livingstone, that pioneer of African explo- 
ration and that hero of Christian missions, wrote these words in 
his diary: ^^0 Jesns, my King, my Lord, my Life, my All, I this 
this day give myself once more to thee V Is it a wonder that when 
they found his emaciated body, dead, in that wretched hut in Cen- 
tral Africa, they fonnd him on his knees, his face buried in his 
hands, his last breath spent in prayer for the redemption of the 
Dark Continent? It was the blood of the Lamb that moved him. 
The atonement of Christ for a lost world impelled him to carry 
the news of that atonement to the world. And as it is love for 
a crucified Saviour that moves the Christian missionary to go, so it 
is the love of Christ, thus exhibited, that breaks down human pride, 
disarms opposition, and conquers mankind. The nations with their 
false religions and their enmity to Cod, will be subdued only 
through the blood of the Lamb. 

The blood of the Lamb not only removes an obstacle, and fur- 
nishes a motive — it also constitutes a life. By this I mean that 
the crucified One does not stand without — he actually enters into 
us, and makes us a part of him&elf. We are not saved sim- 
ply by an external atonement. We ourselves receive the spirit 
of the atonement by receiving the Spirit of Christ. And 
there is no metaphor about this — it is literal fact. The infinite 
Christ in whom all things consist, in whom we live and move and 
are, interpenetrates and energizes the whole moral nature of the 
Christian, as he had before furnished the source of our natural life. 
For us to live is Christ. Not we live, but Christ liveth in us. We 
can overcome Satan, because we have a new life and a new charac- 
ter. Shall we say that we sanctify ourselves 05 Tie (itfif It is much 
more true that he sanctifies himself in us_, his members, and as the 



692 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

result of this we purify ourselves as he is pure. Shall we say that 
we give ourselves for others, as he did? It is much more true that 
he gives himself anew in us, and that we fill up that which is be- 
hind of his sufferings, for his body's sake which is the church. The 
higher impulses which we feel are his impulses within us, and 
therefore he can say: "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and 
he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.'' 

Here is a partnership that is equal to the work of dethroning 
the great adversary and casting him out from the heart. The mosit 
inveterate love for sensual pleasure, the most consuming ambition, 
the most willful and arbitrary hatred of the good, are no bar to 
Christ's power. He can renew the affections and change the will, 
and turn all the forces of a man's being into an engine for resisting 
and trampling under foot the evil one. And as it is Christ that 
overcomes Satan within, so it is Christ that achieves every con- 
quest without. A minister of the gospel once visited a family in 
great destitution and affliction. The istory of their sorrows and 
trials touched his heart. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he 
tried to comfort them. After he had taken his departure, a little 
child, who had been looking on in wonderment, said : "Mamma, was 
that Jesusi?" I do not know what the mother answered, but she 
might have answered: "Yes, that was Jesus — Jesus in the person 
of one of his servants." It was Jesus in him that moved him to 
come, Jesus in him that gave the sympathetic heart, Jesus that led 
him to put forth the helpful hand. The very Saviour who suf- 
fered on the cross imparts to his people the spirit of his atonement ; 
and, dwelling in them, leads them to sacrifice themselves for the 
life of the world. I dot not mean, of course, that we can make 
atonement. The infinite Saviour has made the infinite sacrifice 
once for all. But, since he is in us and we partake of his life, the 
spirit of his atonement is ours, and we in our measure manifest it. 
We overcome self and the world by the blood of the Lamb, not 
simply because the crucified Saviour removes the obstacle of our 
guilt, not simply because the crucified Saviour furnishes the one 
sufficient motive to obedience, but also because the crucified Saviour 
constitutes the inmost life of the redeemed soul. 



THE SECEET OF TICTOKT. 693 

1 shall have but a moment to treat the second part of my theme. 
You remember that the text says more than that they overcame 
through the blood of the Lamb. It adds : And through the word 
of their testimony. Overcoming is not wholly Grod's business. It 
is ours also. The objective work of Christ leads to, and is neces- 
sarily accompanied by, the Christian's testimony to it. TThen any 
great truth or fact, says Dr. Storrs, becomes central and vital, it 
inevitably expresses itself. And the expression reacts upon the 
faith, and makes it more vivid and effective. So we are to over- 
come Satan, within and without, not merely through the blood of 
the Lamb, but through the word of our testimony to that precious 
blood and its power to save. Our testimony to Christ is not 
intended simply to save others — it is intended also to save us. It 
has a reflex action upon our own moral life: it stimulates us to 
new effort: it pledges us to the conflict with self and sin. "With- 
hold not then your confession of Christ, and forsake not the gath- 
erings where this confession is made, for by so doing you give place 
to Satan and put out of your hands one whole half of your means 
for overcominsf him. 

But it is equally true that our testimony to Christ is not intended 
simply to save ourselves — it is intended also to save others. It is 
the great means of convincing and converting the world. When 
Peter made his great confession : "Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living Grod,'' Jesus answered: "Thou are Peter, and upon this 
rock — ^the double rock of personality and of confession — I will build 
my church." Xot Peter the unregenerate and the deming, but the 
believing and confessing Peter, should lay the first foundations of 
the church both among the Jews and among the Gentiles. But so, 
it is a promise to every confessor of Christ, and a promise to us. 
We, too, may win victories for Christ by the word of our testimony. 

The text has a concludiag word which makes this unmistakable. 
They overcame because of the blood of the Lamb and because of 
the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives even 
unto the death. The blood of the Lamb has made men w illin g to 
shed their own blood. The spirit of Christ's great sacrifice has 
penetrated and pervaded his true followers. They have given them- 



694 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

selves for the life of the world, even as he did. Indeed, the word 
of their testimony even unto death has had in it the very spirit of 
the blood of Christ. And that is the reason why the blood of the 
martyrs has been the seed of the church. In every martyrdom 
the dying Saviour has again been visible, turning his languid 
eye upon the sinning world and bidding it be reconciled to God. 
It was because Saul saw in Stephen a reincarnation of the cruci- 
fied One that he could not rest till at the gates of Damascus he 
received that crucified One into his heart. 

During a lull in that awful massacre of the Armenian Christians 
at Sassouan, when the ground was thickly strewn with the man- 
gled and the dead, and the savage Kurds were too tired further 
to pursue their work of slaughter, the fearful and unusual silence 
was broken by a question of one of those same Kurds : "Who was 
that ^Lord Jesus^ that they were calling to?^^ It was the first 
time, apparently, that the merciless dragoon had ever heard Christ^s 
name, and he heard it uttered as Saul heard it uttered by the lips 
of Stephen. The pallid faces of those Armenian mart5rrs were 
turned to Christ as Stephen^s was, and they, too, cried in their death 
agoniesi : "Lord Jesus, receive our spirits V' The awe-stricken in- 
terrogation of the Kurd showed that even this one word of testi- 
mony had made its impression. It was G-od's Word, and it shall 
not return to him void, but it shall accomplish that whereto he sent 
it — perhaps the sifting and purification of the Armenian church; 
perhaps the convincing of Mohammedans that the time has come 
when their own tradition shall be fulfilled that Islam shall at last 
be superseded by Christianity; perhaps the convincing of Christian 
Europe and America that the iniquity of the Turks is now full, 
and that justice permits their empire no longer to live. 

My friends, should not such incidents as these be a whip to lash 
us to moral effort? We have not yet resisted unto blood, striving 
against sin, as multitudes of God^s martyrs have done. Let us not 
therefore think that we are better off than they. The battle is 
here and now, as well as of old and yonder. For the possession 
of each human soul a conflict is waging between the forces of good 
and of evil, compared with which the earthly results of Waterloo 



THE SECRET OE VICTORY. 695 

or of Gettysburg are insignificant. Satan has desired to have ns, 
that he may sift ns as wheat, and he brings influences to bear upon 
"lis to tempt US to our ruin as artfully and as persistently as he 
brought them to bear upon our Lord in the wilderness of Judea 
and in the garden of Gethsemane. Each one of us must overcome, 
or we must he overcome. And the sooner we realize that the 
whole meaning of our lives is in this struggle, the more hope there 
will be of victory. Better be in Armenia^, nerved to moral effort and 
dying for Christ, than to be in America, neutral or conquered. 
Chrii.f s cause is at stake, and our souls are at stake. To be over- 
come in this conflict is to lose all, for what shall it profit a man 
if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But we do not 
need to be overcome. Each one of us, like Jacob, may have power 
with God and power with man, and may prevail. Each one of us, 
like Paul, may fight the good fight and win a crown of life that 
fadeth not away. As these heroes of faith overcame, not by any 
strength of their own, but by laying hold of the strength 
of Christ, so, too, by the sign of the cross and by receiving the 
crucified One into our hearts, we may put to flight all the 
armies of the evil one that are arrayed against our souls. God 
grant, that the meditation of this afternoon, and this great Word 
of God upon which we have meditated, may give us new courage to 
begin and to carry on the fight with our great enemy, until we, 
too, have finally and forever put the adversary beneath our feet. 
The saddest of all dying words is: "I am overcome !^^ But the 
gladdest of all dying words is: ^'I liave overcome" Let the glad 
words and not the sad words be ours ! This is the victory that 
overcometh the world, even our faith. By the blood of the Lamb 
and by the word of our testimony we, too, may overcome. 



696 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LX 
THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE 



By John Peiest Greene, D. D., LL. D., 
William Jewell College 

"There shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the 
Lamb shall be therein: and his servants shall do him service; and they shall 
see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads." — Rev. 22 : 3, 4. 

NO man has ever seen God. No one conld see him and live. 
He is so glorious that mortal eyes cannot look upon him. 
The sight of him would blind us, and strike us dead with amaze- 
ment. It is necessary that he should hide his face from us while we 
remain in this sinful and finite state. "Yet he has not left him- 
self without a witness.^^ He does us good, and gives us from hea- 
ven rains and fruitful season^ filling our hearts with food and 
gladness. The sun is too bright for our eyes. God made it to give 
us light and heat, but not to be gazed at with the naked eye. It 
is necessarily a very large body, and very hot and bright. If it 
were not so our eartH would be a frozen and dark sphere. We can 
enjoy its benefits without looking at it. Our real knowledge of the 
sun is very little. But we know that the benefits we derive from 
it are very great; our very life depends upon it. Our knowledge 
is sufficient for the present. If we had to gaze into the face of this 
bright orb all the time, it would do us more harm than good. God 
has revealed enough of his character for thisi present state. All 
around us are unmistakable evidences of his existence and good- 
ness. We do not have to see his face in order to believe in him. If 
he were to turn the full light of his glory upon us, we should be 
consumed. In wisdom, and for our good, he gives us dim and par- 
tial reflections of his character. "Now we see in a mirror, darkly; 
but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know 
even as also I have been known.^' 

The world has always had a sufiicient revelation of God. "God, 




^. mimt I. D.. LL. 



JOHN PEIEST GREENE Ava.s born in Scotland county, Missouri, in the 
year 1849. His parents were staunch Baptists and people of sterling worth. 
He received his academic education at the hands of Bartlett Anderson, and 
also at the Memphis Academy, Mo. He was for two years a student at 
La Grange College, and afterwards spent three yeans as an instructor in the 
same institution. In 1875 he entered the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, at Greenville, S. C, following it in 1877 to Louisville, Ky., 
where he was for two years pastor of the East Baptist Church in that city. 

In 1879 he went to Germany, where he spent fifteen months as a student 
in the University of Leipsic, afterward traveling in Europe, visiting many 
places of interest, and thus broadening and deepening his knowledge. Re- 
turning to America, he renewed the charge of his old church in Louis- 
ville. 

In November, 1882, he was called to the pastorate of the Third Baptist 
Church, in St. Louis, where he remained until he entered upon his duties as 
President of William Jewell College, at Liberty, Missouri, in September, 
1892. His work in St. Louis was attended with marked success. He found 
a church of 372 members and left it with 800 members, besides a large 
number who had withdrawn to go into new churches organized in various 
parts of the city. Few men have more universally won the esteem and 
love of the denomination than he. In 1895 he received the degree of 
LL. D. from Wake rEorest College, North Carolina, having already been 
lionored with the doctorate in theology by another college. In August, 
1898, when Dr. William Heth Whitsitt resigiied the presidency of the 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Greene was chosen president by 
the Board of Trustees. He declined, however, that he might continue his 
great work at William Jewell College, of which institution he is still 
president. William Jewell College is the Baptist school of Missouri, and 
there each year a number of our young ministers receive their classical 
training and become stronger men for having come in touch with the noted 
educator. Dr. John Priest Greene. 
(698) 



THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE. 699 

having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the projDhets by divers 
portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days 
spoken nnto ns in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, 
through whom also he made the worlds; who being the effulgence 
of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all 
things by the word of his power, when he had made purification 
of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high/^ The 
"divers portions and divers manners'^ of the past revelations were 
sufficient for the times, but not all that he intended to give. In 
the beginning it was his purpose to reveal himself in the person of 
his Son. The promise of this revelation was given in the Gl-arden 
of Eden. It was obscure at first, little more than a hint. But it 
was restated from time to time with increasing distinctncGS. The 
people of God understood it sufficiently to have a hope, and that 
hope was kept alive till the promise was fulfilled. In due time 
the Son came in the form of a man, of a servant. God veiled 
the glory of his person in human flesh, that we might look upon 
him in a familiar way, without terror and without injury. The 
light is given to us in a mild and practical way. We may draw 
nigh unto Christ with boldness, and in the full as'3urance of faith. 
This revelation of the Father was a happy thought. Could man 
have imagined such a thing, or dared to ask it ? God became incar- 
nate, and lived among men! "The WoTd became flesh and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten 
from the Father, full of grace and truth." He is so humble, so 
meek and lowly in heart, that many cannot believe that he is divine. 
They do not look through the veil of humanity at the divine sub- 
stance. They see no beauty in him that they ishould desire him. 
But it was necessary that he should come in this lowly way. In 
what other way could the Almighty approach timid mortals ? The 
appearance of angels has always striick terror to the hearts of men. 
If the Son of God should appear to us in the unshrouded glory of 
heaven we should swoon with fright. When the light from heaven 
shone round about Saul he fell upon the earth, smitten with blind- 
ness. The voice that came from heaven was much more terrible 
than the gentle, sweet tones of Jesus as he taught by the lake, and 



700 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

on the moimtainside, and in the Synagogue. We can speak with 
a man; but we could not speak face to face with G-od. True, he 
came to ns in a lowly manner, aa a babe, born in a stable and 
cradled in a manger. And he lived a meek and unpretentious life. 
But could his appearance be otherwise ? If he would be a man, he 
would have to come into the world as man come5>, and live as man 
lives. It behooves every man to be meek and lowly in heart. Christ 
has not only shown us the Father, but has also revealed humanity 
to us in its true light. Was there ever such a man! Will there 
ever be another like him? 

If it was proper for God to reveal himself in the form of a man, 
could he have given us a better revelation than the one we have in 
Jesus Christ? He meets every requirement. He is the ideal man. 
And there is no lack of the divine in his character. JSTo man ever 
spoke as he spoke. ISTo man ever did the works that he did. As 
we hear his words and see his works we are convinced that he is 
a divine person in human guise. We feel that he has a strong re- 
serve of superhuman wisdom and power. He is as simple as a 
child, yet wiser than all the philosophers; he is as gentle and inof- 
fensive as a lamb, yet mightier than a giant. ISTow and then the 
divine flashes forth, as if he would dispel all doubts concerning 
Ms character. On the Mount of Transfiguration he puts on, for a 
moment, the glory of heaven, and our bewildered souls fall down 
before him and adore him. In the garden we see his enemies driven 
backward and smitten to the earth by a flash of his divinity. This 
is indeed God, manifest in the flesh. 

The desire to see God is the highest aspiration of the pious 
soul. The good servant very naturally longs to see his dear Mas- 
ter. Moses was a highly-favored servant of the Lord. In many 
ways and at many times, God came near to him. He lived on inti- 
mate terms with the Almighty, and spoke with him as friend to 
friend. Yet he was not satiefied. He wanted to see the face of 
Jehovah. "And he said, show me, I pray thee, thy glory. And he 
said, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee, and will pro- 
claim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious to 
whom I will be gracious and will show mercy to whom I will show 



THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE. 701 

mercy. And he said;, tliou canst not see my face ; for man shall not 
see me and live. And the Lord said. Behold there is a place by me, 
and thou shalt stand upon the rock ; and it shall come to pass, while 
my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and 
will cover thee with my hand nntil I have passed by; and I will 
take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back ; but my face shall 
not be seen.''^ The Lord sympathized with his faithful servant, and 
gave him as great a revelation of himself as he was able to receive. 
Moses did not doubt the existence of God. His faith did not need 
to be confirmed by sight. He had held close and sweet communion 
with Jehovah, had heard his voice, and felt his presence. What he 
knew of the Lord made him desire to see his face. This desire came 
from love, not from curiosity. God yielded as far as possible to 
his loving servant. He put him in the cleft of the rock, and cov- 
ered him with his hand. Then he passed by, and took away his 
hand, and gave him a glimpse of his receding glory. Moses does 
not tell us how glorious the sight was. That revelation was for 
him alone. We may be sure that it was all that he could endure, 
and that he was satisfied for the present. Paul was caught up to 
the third heaven, into paradise, and ^Tieard unspeakable words, 
wliicE it is not lawful for a man to utter." He could not repeat 
what he heard, and it would not have been right, if he could. "The 
exceeding greatness of the revelations" was kept a profound secret. 
There are no words in human speech to describe the glories of 
God. John tell us many things that he saw and heard in his visions 
of heaven. But these things are mysteriou.s to us. Perhaps we 
shall never understand them until we get to heaven, and learn the 
language of that happy place. Any revelation that we receive 
here must be partial, and only a foretaste of the glory that is to 
come. If we could see Jesus in human form, we should want to see 
him in his glorified form. Then we should want to see the Father, 
and all the glories of heaven. The disciples were not satisfied with 
seeing the Son of God. They said, "Show us the Father, and it suf- 
ficeth us." Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father !" 
Jesus was the very image of the invisible God. They should 
have been content with this revelation. Many had desired to see 



702 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

the things that they saw, and had not seen them. But they had 
become familiar with the incarnate God, and wished to see more. 
The desire to see the Father was not sinful. But they should have 
been satisfied, for the present, with this highest and brightest 
manifestation of God that was ever granted to human creatures. 
And we should be satisfied with Jesus. God has done his best to 
bring himself down to our comprehension. For the present we 
have all that heart could wish. While we are in the flesh, we can- 
not ask more. After a while this mortal shall put on immortality. 
Then we shall see Our Lord as he is and be like him. Then we 
shall see his face, and the desire of our hearts shall be perfectly 
satisfied. Till then let us look unto Jesus, God manifest in the 
flesh! 

For the present we are content to look at our Saviour with the eye 
of faith. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have be- 
lieved.^^ But there is a desire, deep down in our hearts, to see his 
face. God has given us this sweet hope. "I know that my Ee- 
deemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at last upon the earth^'; 
"Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not 
another .^^ He is very dear to us; "the chief est among ten thous- 
and;'^ ^^yea, he is altogether lovely.-'^ All our blessings come from 
him. He purchased our redemption with his own blood. This one 
act of self-sacrifice is enough to endear him to our hearts forever. 
But his saving work is going on all the time. Every day we enjoy 
the blessings of his grace. In times of doubt and trouble we call 
on him for help, and he hears our cry. How often he has delivered 
us from our fears ! In sorrow he is our comfort. We know many 
of his precious promises by heart. We believe that a blessed time is 
coming when he will wipe away all our tears. He has also been a 
good master to us. We have never regretted the day we entered his 
service. Our work is imperfect, and not very profitable. But he 
has blessed it and given us the assurance of his approval. Our 
hearts have heard his words, "well done, thou good and faithful 
servant;" and we have often held sweet communion with him. We 
have enjoyed seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, 
blessed times that can never be forgotten. Words cannot describe 



THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE. 703 

these Happy experiences. They constitiite the sweetest memories 
of OUT lives. The Savioiir has endeared himself to ns in so many 
ways that it would be iinnatTiral if we did not desire to see his face. 
A blind man once told me that he longed every day to see his wife's 
face. Her loving kindness made him ever more anxLons to see her. 
Every day he passed his hand over her face to give him some idea 
of her appearance. And it was one of his most precious hopes, 
that in heaven he would see that dear face. 

TTe know that our Saviour is lovely. But the imagination falters 
when it tries to picture him. We turn away from every representa- 
tion of the painter with sad disappointment. This is not a likeness 
of Jesus ! We must see him for ourselves. Every new experience 
of his love quickens this desire. It is impossible to be satisfied till 
we see biui whom our hearts love and adore. 

Yes. we that love him shall see his face. All men shall see him 
m his glory and power. His splendor will dazzle every eye. But 
seeing his face is more than looking at him. We shall see h im 
always, and know him, and be like him. Seeing his face means 
heaven ! These words describe the happy state of his people. What 
bliss it will be to have the light of his countenance shining upon us 
all the time ! Heaven would not be heaven, if we could not see his 
face. The sight of him will fill our souls with unspeakable joy. 
Out Saviour's face ! no longer marred and tear-stained, but radiant 
with joy. Such beauty ! Majesty and glory and love blend together 
in the light of his countenance. His smile ravishes the soul. We 
shall see His face! What greater blessing could heaven have in 
store for us? Seeing his face means the end of our struggles, the 
realization of our highest hopes, and the satisfaction of our love. 

1. Tlie end of our struggles. 

In his presence we shall have rest and peace. This life 
is a constant struggle. On every hand is an opposing foe. 
There are fightings without and fears within. We have to 
look unto Jesus aU the time, with the eye of faith, in 
order to maintain the conflict. If the Lord had not been 
on our side, we should have given up long ago; many times 
hope and courage have almost failed us. The enemy has beaten us 



704 TIIE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

down, and driven fiiriously over our prostrate forms. But the Lord 
knows how to lift up the fallen. By his grace we have continued 
the struggle until this day. And he will lead us triumphantly 
through all our tribulations until we shall see his face in peace. 
Then our enemy will trouble us no more. Our hearts shall never 
again feel the torments of fear. There will be no more burdens to 
bear. Sorrow shall cease. The Saviour will wipe away all our tears. 
His smile will fill our souls with delightful sensations of rest and 
peace. Here our hearts are never without a burden. We go from 
one conflict to another. When we finish one work, we must begin 
another. One sorrow is the forerunner of many others. We are 
working out our own salvatio^n with fear and trembling. Seeing his 
face will make an end to this bitter struggle. In his presence the 
soul will awake with Joy from the feverish dream of this troublous 
life. ^^For thou shalt forget thy misery; for thou shalt remember 
it as the waters that are passed away." 

2. The realization of our highest hopes. 

'^We shall be like him; for we shall isee him even as he is." We 
are poor, sinful creatures. Our souls are weighed down with the 
consciousness of our imperfections. Yet, sinful as we are, we have 
a high ideal before us. Perhaps every human heart longs after a 
better and holier life. Perhaps every one sees higher ground than 
that on which he stands, and desires at times to ascend to it. It 
is certain that every Christian has a high ideal before him. He is 
looking unto Jesus. He cannot turn his eyes away from this per- 
fect model. The Christian life is a longing after holiness. And 
Jesus is the goal of all our aspirations. He is the hope that is 
set before us. When we would define our highest hopes, we point to 
him. If we were like him, we should have all that our hearts could 
wish. It grieves us that we are not like him ! We try to imitatq 
him. But the harder we try to approach him the farther he seems 
to recede from us. How distressing it is to have this unapproach- 
able ideal ever before us! We can't attain to it, yet we must. 
Shall we ever be like him ? It seems impossible ! Yet we cannot 
be 'Satisfied to remain as we are. God has given us the hope of 
seeing Jesus and of being like him, and this hope keeps us from 



THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE. 705 

despair. Nothing is impossible with God. He will not disappoint 
these high hopes that he has implanted in onr hearts. He has 
begun a good work in ns^ and he will complete it. When? When 
we see his face ! Then we shall be holy. We shall be robed in his 
righteousness. Then our brightest hopes will be realized. "I shall 
be satisfied to remain as we are. God has given us the hope of 
fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." 

3. The satisfaction of love. 

We love our Saviour, and cannot be perfectly happy away from 
him. Separation is irksome to loving hearts. This life is a pil- 
grimage, an exile. It would be unendurable, if we were not sus- 
tained by the hope of seeing our dear Lord. True, he is with us 
in Spirit. But the presence of his Spirit only quickens our desire 
to see his face. As our love for him increases it becomes more 
exacting. Paul desired to depart and be with Christ. He felt 
that it would be far better to be with him than to abide in the 
flesh. Who would live always away from his God ? Could love en- 
dure a perpetual separation? It would better expire, if there is no 
possibility of a meeting. It would be better never to love Jesus 
than to love him and never see him. Unrequited love is the bit- 
terest disappointment of the soul. ~ We must meet him in the 
after-time. We cannot rest amid the splendors of heaven, if we do 
not see him there. Our souls mil go on crying after him through 
the boundless universe. "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And 
there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee !" Surely the 
Saviour would not win our love and cause it to grow stronger and 
stronger, if he did not intend to satisfy its passionate longings. 
He would have told us, if the tender anticipations of our love are 
to be disappointed. But he suffers our love to believe all things, 
to hope all things, to eudure all things, because it shall be fully 
satisfied. We shall see his face ! Then lovers fondest dreams shall 
be realized. His gracious reception of us will surpass our wildest 
fancy. All that love can ask, he will give, and much more. 

We should remember also that Jesus loves us. Great as our love 
for him is it could not bring about this union. We could not be 
happy if there were no hope of seeing him. But our love cannot 



706 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

bring us into his presence. He will take us unto himself. His 
great love must be satisfied. The separation is not pleasant to him. 
It will be a great joy to him to have us vsdth him all the time. It 
is his purpose to gather his people together. There shall be one fold 
and one Shepherd. He shall feed them and lead them unto foun- 
tains of living water. He has gone to prepare a place for us, and 
he will come again, and receive us unto himself. "I will that where 
I am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory .•'^ 
Never will he be satisfied until he has consummated his work of 
grace. The glory of heaven would not be so enjoyable to him, if he 
could not share it with his people. Heaven would not be heaven 
to us, if Jesus were not there; and we may reverently say that 
heaven would not be heaven to him if he could not have his people 
with him. His tender heart went out after us while we were in our 
sins. In love he watches over us all the time, and preserves us from 
the evil one. And this same infinite love will lift us up to his pres- 
ence and his glory. His work will not be done until he and his 
people are brought face to face in indissoluble union. He wants 
them to see him, and he wants to look into their sinless and happy 
faces. If any difference, he will be gladder to see them than they 
will be to see him. It would be an everlasting grief to him, if they 
had to spend eternity away from his presence. Let not your heart 
be troubled.^^ Nothing shall separate you from his love. He would 
be unhappy without you. If you were lost in the darkness of hell, 
he would find you, and bring you to his dwelling of light. You 
are destined to see his face in glory. 'No one is able to pluck you 
out of his hand. Love brought him down to earth to seek and 
save the lo&t! 

Love never fails. It will cross mountains and deserts and seas to 
find its dear ones. At Queenstovni I saw a poor Irish woman 
coming aboard the steamer from the tug. She had a babe in her 
arms, and a great bundle on her back. The burden was so great 
that she had to make several efforts before she could get upon her 
feet. No one helped her to lift her load. No one even offered to 
carry her babe. But the light of an undaunted courage was in her 
eye. Where was she going? Across the Atlantic. Why was she 



THEY SHALL SEE HIS EACE. 707 

making this long journey alone? Her hnsband was in America. 
'He had sent her money and told her to meet him five thousand 
miles away, in the heart of a great and strange country. What 
courage? ]^o. What love! Love made her leave parents and 
brothers and sisters and friends and native land to join the man 
that was dearer to her heart than her life. She could not endure 
the separation any longer. As I looked down upon her from the 
deck of the steamer my heart wished her God-speed. love of 
woman! Unconquerable! Triumphant! But the love of Jesus 
surpasses the love of woman. Let us rest in his love. It has never 
failed us yet. He is able to do all that his great love dictates. And 
it is the promise of his love that we shall see his face. 

Unbeliever, you shall see him too. You shall look upon him 
whom you pierced. That will be an awful day for you. Terror 
will fill your soul. You will call upon the rocks and hills to fall 
upon you and hide you from his face. God pity you in that day! 
But you shall see him! There is no escape. You shall look upon 
him vdth streaming eyes and bursting heart. But you will not 
Have long to look. The judgment will soon be pronounced. Then 
you will be cast out into outer darkness, where you shall see him no 
more forever. Look unto him now and be saved ! 



708 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

LXI 
THE KINGDOM THAT CHAJSTGED EULERS* 



By Galusha Anderson^ S. T. J)., LL. D., 

The University of Chicago 

"The kingdom of this world is become tlie kingdom of our Lord and of 
his Christ."— Rev. 11: 15. 

THE very word, king, may be repulsive to you. Its history sug- 
gests personal, arbitrary power. But we cannot forget, that 
both in the Old and New Testamentsi, God, and God in Christ, is 
called a king; and if we could divest this term of every suggestion 
of injustice and tyranny, it would no longer repel us. 

Now, the King presented to us in the Scriptures is infinitely wise, 
and in the administration of his government makes no mistakes. 
He is absolutely righteous, and always does what is right. He is the 
embodiment of love and sympath}^, and so perfectly identifies him- 
self with his subjects that whatever is done to them he regards as 
done to himself. If we clothe them, we clothe him ; if we feed them, 
we feed him ; if we visit them in prison, we visit him ; if we shelter 
them under our roof, we shelter him; if we do despite to them, we 
do despite to him. Such a king, instead of being repulsive, is in- 
conceivably attractive. 

In the text his kingdom is declared to be this world. By the 
world is here meant our race in its totality. Once it was under 
the control of the evil one; but it was delivered from his malign 
sway, and became the kingdom of our Lord, of God our Father, and 
of his Christ — ^hia Anointed One. 

There are two interpretations of the text. Some hold that it 
refers to the close of the present dispensation. At that time the 
battles of the church will have been all fought out, its final victory 
will have been won. Then, and not till then, "great voices in hea- 



*Annual sermon preached at the twelfth annual convention of the Bap- 
tist Young People's Union of America, in Providence, R. I., July 13, 1902. 




^kimm mmu\ 



I T. p., LL i. 



GALUSHA ANDERSON was born in Bergen, Genesee county, New York, 
March 7, 1832. He was graduated at the University of Rochester with the 
degrees of B. A. and M. A. in 1854 and 1857 respectively. He was a student 
at the Rochester Theological Seminary during the sessions of 1854-'6, grad- 
uating the last year. He became distinguished as a preacher, and was 
pastor at Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1856-'8, and at St. Louis, Missouri, 
from 1858 to 1866. In this latter year he received the degree of S. T. D. 
from the University of Rochester. He was professor of Sacred Rhetoric, 
Church Polity, and Pastoral Duties in Newton Theological Institute from 
1866 to 1873. He was a pastor in Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1873 to 1876, and 
in Chicago from 1876 to 1878. He was president of the Old University of 
Chicago, 1878-'85. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the 
University of Rochester and Madison (now Colgate) University also in 
1884. He was pastor at Salem, Mass., 1885; president of Denison Univer- 
sity, 1887-'90, and professor of Homiletics, Church Polity, and Pastoral 
Duties in the Baptist Union Theological Seminary, 1890-'2. He has been 
professor of Homiletics, Church Polity, and Pastoral Duties in the Divinity 
School of the University of Chicago since 1892. Dr. Ira M. Price, associate 
professor in the department of Semitic Languages and Literatures in this 
great Baptist University, says that Dr. Galusha Anderson is their star 
preacher. The Divinity Department of the University of Chicago has a 
larger number of divinity students than any other Christian theological 
school in the world. 
(710) 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHANGED RULERS. 711 

ven'^ shall proclaim^ "The kingdom of this world is become the 
kingdom of onr Lord, and of his Christ.'^ 

Others maintain that when John heard these words on Patmois, 
the kingdom of this world had already changed rulers; and this 
contention is sustained by Christ^s declaration just before his cruci- 
fixion. Speaking, as though the agonies of the cross were already 
passed, and his triumph assured, he says, "N'ow is the judgment,'^ 
the condemnation, "of this world ; now shall the prince of this world 
be cast out" — out of the hearts of men, out of his throne and king- 
dom. He shall be no longer the ruler of our race. And when, on 
his cross, Jesus said, "It is finished," the world changed rulers. 
Prom the fall till that hour, taken as a whole, it had been controlled 
by the evil one ; then, delivered from his grasp by the finished work 
of the Crucified, it became the everlasting kingdom of our Lord. 
And this interpretation is buttressed by the declaration of Paul, 
"He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet" — that 
is, he reigns now, and will continue so to do till all that oppose him 
shall acknowledge his rightful sway. 

That he began to rule this world at the time of his death and 
resturrection, we have abundant proof. Society began at once to be 
lifted up to a higher moral level. N"ew and purer currents of 
thought were set in motion. Men began to be valued as never be- 
fore. The ancient idea of the state was soon replaced by the 
modern and Christian notion of it. According to the ancient idea, 
tlie power of the state was centralized in the king or em^peror; 
now that Jesus had taught the pre-eminent dignity and worth of 
man, men began to conceive that the power of the state was in the 
hands of the people. Men no longer existed simply to serve the 
state, but the state was to serve them. Government was no longer 
of the king, and by the king, and for the king, but under Christ's 
reign it became of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

Men also began to think new thoughts about enslaving human be- 
ings. Since man as such was of transcendent worth, since Christ 
came from heaven to save him and died to redeem him, since he 
was a child of God and a brother, he could not rightfully be made 
the chattel and slave of another. So, surrounded by multitudes of 



712 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

bondmen, the Christian slave-holder, -unsolicited, spontaneously 
and voluntarily, impelled by the inherent force of the Spirit that 
Christ had implanted within him manumitted his slaves. 

Men, too, under the kingship of Christ, began to be swayed by 
thoughts radically new and vital toward the weak, the unfortunate, 
and helpless. Puny and deformed children that had been exposed 
in the fields to die unpitied and unwept because they were consid- 
ered valueless to the state, were now gathered into asylums and 
tenderly nursed and trained. This Christly benevolence began to 
touch and to control with its subtle, invisible energy, even the 
thinking and acts of the best heathen ; so that Trajan established a 
fund for the maintenance of poor girls and boys. This fund was 
augmented by Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, and the lat- 
ter put these endowments under the charge of consular officers. 
He wrote to his friend Pronto of his happiness in the health of his 
little girls, and Pronto in turn sends kisses "to their fat little toes 
and tiny hands." Thus early in the history of Christianity, Christ 
as king of this world was ruling in the minds and hearts alike of 
Christians and heathen, and causing even the Eoman emperors, 
who persecuted his church, unwittingly to serve it. And myriads 
of facts besides these attest the truth that at the cross and the 
empty tomb this world became the kingdom of our Lord. 

But while it passed under his rightful authority, at first there 
were comparatively few who acknowledged allegiance to him. The 
world assumed an attitude toward his authority like that of the 
Philippines toward the United States. Without any design on our 
part, in the inexplicable providence of God, thosie islands came into 
our possession. They were ceded to us by solemn treaty, and 
treaties belong to the ground law of the republic. That no possi- 
ble injustice might be done to the former holder of them, with 
whom we had been justly at war, we paid for them twenty mil- 
lions of dollars. They became ours both by treaty and purchase. 
A few of the inhabitants at once gladly submitted to our authority. 
The number acknowledging allegiance to the United States has 
so steadily and rapidly increased that on the fourth of this month 
the President issued a proclamation declaring a state of peace 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHANGED KULEES. 713 

in all the islands but one, and that civil government was estab- 
lished. The army in the islands now being rapidly decreased, falls 
into the background, its power henceforth to be called into requisi- 
tion only in certain exigencies to enforce the laws of the civil gov- 
ernment. 

In like manner this world became Christ's through the solemn 
promise of the Father, who isaid to his Son, "Ask of me, and I will 
give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
of the earth for thy possession." Bnt what was thns given to him 
he bonght with his own blood. The world became his by covenant 
and by purchase. Some at once gave to him glad submission. As 
the centuries have come and gone vast multitudes have joyfully 
hailed him as their divine King. To-day on earth hundreds of mil- 
lions exultingly follow "his blood-red banner,'^ and in heaven an 
innumerable throng cast their crowns at his feet; and the day will 
soon dawn, when to him "every knee shall bow" and "every tongue 
shall confess that he is Lord." 

But how can those who still refuse to submit to his sway be 
brought to render him allegiance ? Not by outward physical force. 
You cannot compel men to enthrone Christ within their hearts. 
We speak reverently; God himself cannot do that; for there are 
some things that even he cannot do. He cannot lie; and having 
established a law, he cannot consistently with his moral being dis- 
regard it. He has given to every man the power of choice. Each 
for himself is called upon freely to determine who shall be his 
king, Christ or the devil. This freedom of choice is one of God^s 
laws, imbedded in man's moral nature, and rather than obstruct 
its action by even the weight of a hair, he will permit every man 
to be led captive by the god of this world. And if God cannot by 
force compel men to do him homage, of course we cannot. And 
whenever Christian men, invoking the power of the state to en- 
force their will, have attempted it, they have disastrously failed. 
^'The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but," blessed 
be his name, "are mighty before God to the casting down of strong- 
holds." We fight by simply proclaiming the truth of the gospel. 
Our sword is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. We smite 



714 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

not in hate, but in love; not to kill, but to save; not to override 
reason and will, but to lead men freely and heartily to choose 
Christ as their king. This is Jesns^ way. In the supreme hour of 
his earthly career the Boman governor ac-ked him, "Art thou a 
king then?^' and Jesus answered: "Thou sayest that I am king.'* 
It was equivalent to saying in our tongue : "Yes, I am a king. But 
I am not a king like the emperor whom you represent. I have no 
constabulary or armies to enforce my decrees. I have no money 
like earthly rulers. The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have 
nests, but I have not where to lay my head; still I am a king, and 
rule not by carnal weapons, but by the truth.'' "To this end have 
I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should 
bear witness unto the truth." In the Eevelation Christ is pre- 
sented to us in his glory. He has "a sharp two-edged sword," but 
that sword goes "out of his mouth." He smites the nations, but it 
is "with the breath of his lips." It is, then, by bearing witness to 
the truth, by simply proclaiming the Word of God, which is 
"sharper than any two-edged sword," that the allegiance of men 
to Christ is secured. 

From this it follows that the supreme duty of all believers in 
Christ is to proclaim the truth of the gospel to the whole race. 
Christ himself made this hisi pre-eminent work. He declared that 
he "came to seek and to save that which was lost." This explains^ 
every act of his that pertained to our race. To win those that were 
lost he emptied himself; laid aside his crown and sceptre and 
glory; took upon himself the nature of those that he came to re- 
deem; suffered for them the most disgraceful of all deaths; rose 
victorious over the grave; ascended to heaven, and poured out his 
Spirit on all flesh. He revealed to men the great loving heart of 
God — made known to them his willingness to forgive and save. 
During his earthly ministry, by precept, parable, and miracle, he 
persistently proclaimed these glad tidings, and sealed his testi- 
mony with his blood. Every word and act was an expression of 
his love. He said "Come" with such ineffable tenderness that 
the multitude gathered entranced about him. And he did it all 
just to lead men to submit gladly to their rightful Lord and King. 



t:^z kixgdo:.! tkat ceaxc-ed euless. 715 

As tfiat was Ms supreme work, it is also ours. We. as Ms cMldren, 
are imited to Mm. "We enter into Ms plans ; we tMnk: Ms thoughts ; 
we five Ms life: we strive for that for wMch he strove: as the 
Father sent him, he sends us. Bv lip and life, oxtr supreme work, 
like the Masters, is to lead men everywhere to yield themselves to 
their divine King. 

Also by directs, explicit command he made this our first and pre- 
eminent duty. He had risen from the dead. He was about to 
leave Ms disciples, and take his seat at the right hand of God in 
heaven. But before he resumed that glory wMch he had with the 
Fathrr ; ei^re the world was, he gathered around him, on some 
n :^- izi iz Galilee, above 500 of Ms disciples, and, declaring that 
d ::_::. :t in heaven and earth had been given unto him, he 
bade them go '*'and make disciples of all the nations,*' organize 
them into churches by "l)aptizing them^ into the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,'' and train them 
for service by ^^eaching them to observe all things whatsoever'^ he 
had commanded them. These were the most weighty of his fare- 
well words; as if he would say to them: ^*Be certain now and re- 
member that your distinctive mission is to lead all men to sit as 
humble learners at the feet of their divine Master.'' 

That tMs is our cMef duty is clear from its reflex influence upon 
us. By its faithful performance the CMistian worker secures for 
hine^lf the largest development of character. By saving others, 
he saves himself. By persistently doing tMs primal, indispensable 
work he who has been justified tMough faith in Jesus Christ be- 
come more and more sanctified. You can never secure sanddfi- 
c-ation, holiness, just by thinking about it. Those who give them- 
^l\es up simply to meditation and theorizing on the doctrine of 
sanctification are apt to float off into mysticism. They become im- 
practical, living in clouds, reposing self-satisfied in dreamland. 
Waked out of their reveries, they often show themselves to be un- 
charitable and intolerant. Jostie them, and, like the porcupine, they 
bristle with piercing quilkw Some of them will not permit the 
unc-onveried to be present in their meetings, lest their immaculate- 
ness should be stained bv the world. From such so-called sancti- 



716 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Ecation may the Lord graciously save you! Now, the tap-root of 
sin is selfisliness. When, therefore, forgetful of self, you in love 
lay hold of all classes of men, the world over, that you may bring 
them into fellowship with God, you are withering the nethermost 
root of sin within you. By doing such a work for men, you are be- 
coming like your Lord ; and to be like him is to be sanctified. 

The work of winning men to Christ also constantly strengthens 
the individual Christian graces. Like all our powers, they grow by 
being exercised. It may sometimes be difficult to exercise the 
chief grace, love. Men have been distorted by sin, and there is 
much in them that is unlovely and repulsive. But beneath all that 
repels us there are souls of infinite worth and boundless possibili- 
ties. And if, ignoring the demands of fastidious self, in spite of 
all that is outwardly repugnant, we labor to save them, our feeble 
love for them will speedily take on fresh power. And we shall find 
that love waxes mighty by loving. 

So is it also with faith that works by love. When striving toi save 
men, we are confronted with worldliness and indifference, and 
must walk by faith, if we walk at all. We seem to be shut in by 
unyielding walls of granite. We must preach and pray, unaided 
by sight, trusting alone in the God who has promised that we shall 
not toil in vain. Faith, put to a test so sharp, if it doe& not falter, 
grows in might until unbelief and indifference, more impregnable 
than adamant, give way before it. So hope, which is confident 
expectation of blessing, always waxes strong by use. Genuine 
Christian workers are always hopeful. It is the do-nothings in the 
cEurches that are afflicted with the ''doleful dumps f 

But the work of bringing men into submission to Christ not 
only develops and sanctifies the individual believer, but also builds 
up churches both in piety and numbers. The growth of churches 
has always been just in proportion to their missionary activity. 
This is so obvious to all that it needs no proof nor illustration. 

It is, then, abundantly clear that the supreme work of all true 
believers is to bring men everywhere to acknowledge their allegi- 
ance to their divine King. This was Christ's pre-eminent work; 
hence, it is ours. He also made it ours by explicit command ; and 



THE e:ingdo:m that chaxged eulees. 717 

only by doing it can the spiritual growth both of the individual 
and of the church be secured. 

But what are the motives that impel us to do it? Briefly these: 
Our fellow-men are lost. They were made to live in fellowship with 
God, but have been separated from him by their sin. Eull of un- 
rest they wander farther and farther from him, and are ever sink- 
ing deeper and deeper in misery. Wretched themselves, they make 
others wretched also. Their habitations have become the habita- 
tions of cruelty. Unless they are won to Christ they will sink in 
eternal rayless night. It was this that touched the heart of God, 
so that he bowed the heavens and came do^vn in the person of his 
Son, that he might save the lost. 

Moreover, these lost millions of the earth, however degraded, are 
Chrisf s brethren and ours, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, 
blood of our blood; like us made in the image of God; and Christ 
6ays : "Whatsoever ye do to the least of these, my brethren, ye do 
it unto me.^' 

But the mightiest motive urging us to do all in our power to 
win them to God is the astounding fact that Christ out of his 
self-sacrificing love died for them. Shall we not put forth our 
utmost endeavor to rescue those whose salvation was made possi- 
ble only at such infinite cost? If we are one with Christ, can we 
fail to proclaim his love and grace to all those whom he has bought 
with his blood ? In Chicago a few months ago two little daughters 
of a widow woman who lived near a railroad, in their play, 
unconscious of danger, had seated themselves between the rails of 
the road-bed. The mother saw them just as her ear caught the 
ominous sound of the on-rushing express. She ran for their res- 
cue. She threw one beyond the rails on one '-Ad.e, the other on the 
other, but the engine ran over her, crushing out her life. The 
deepest, tenderest pity stirred the hearts of all. There was noth- 
ing that the neighbors were not ready to do for those orphaned 
girls. With streaming eyes they said: "Their mother died for 
them.'' Oh I these unsaved multitudes of the earth are God's chil- 
dren. Christ died for them. Is there anything that we will re- 
fuse to do in order that we may save them from sin and death ? 



718 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

But can those who are loyal to Christ preach his gospel to all 
men? Why not? To a little more than 500 disciples in Galilee 
he said: "Go and make disciples of all the nations/' The obsta- 
cles in the way of obeying that command were more formidable 
then than now. To be sure the race was then less nnmerons, but 
Christianity was new and untried. Tho&e who followed Christ as 
their King were looked upon as simply a fanatical, contemptible 
Jewish sect. Still later the great apostle to the Gentiles said that 
he and his brethren were regarded as the offscouring of the world. 
Learning and philosophy and law and government were all ar- 
rayed in solid phalanx against them. Christ knowing perfectly 
the opposition which would everywhere confront his disciplesi, said : 
"Go into all tlie world and preach the gospel to every creature.'^ 
Going out as sheep among wolves, they obeyed their King. What 
was the result? Many of the red-handed murderers of Christ at 
Jerusalem bowed before him as their glorified Lord. In almost 
every city of the Eoman empire men became loyal subjects of the 
divine King. Eome itself felt his power, and from the royal house- 
hold of Caesar men gathered around his standard. But now, al- 
though the human race is greater in number, Christianity has been 
consecrated and crowned with a thousand brilliant triumphs. She 
is the mother of all that is noblest and purest and best in the civi- 
lization of the nations. Vast multitudes both on earth and in 
heaven honor Clirist as their King, and in turn, just because they 
l&ear the name of Christ, are honored by their fellow-men. The 
conditions for preaching the gospel of Christ are ever3nvhere fa- 
vorable. If in the most discouraging circumstances, Jesus, with 
wisdom, could say to a little more than five hundred, "Go and make 
disciples of all the nations/' he, with perfect reasonableness could 
now look in the face the two hundred thousand young men and 
women of this IJnion, and say: "Go and make disciples of all the 
nations." And if you should obey with alacrity and earnestness, 
girded by his "Lo-I-am-with-you-alway," if there were not another 
Christian on earth, in due time success would perch on your banner. 
Let us see, at all events, whether it is not wholly within the 
bounds of reason that the millions of believers, now on the earth, 



THE E:iXGDo:\r that changed eulees. y19 

coiild in a short time preach the gospel to every individual of our 
race. There are, we are told, about ten hundred millions of 
heathen. There may be more; there may be less. On the other 
hand, statisticians tell ns that there are four hundred millions of 
Christians. But you object that multitudes of these are Chris- 
tians merel}^ in name. "Well, divide the number by two, and we 
have two hundred million. But you urge again that hosts of these 
are formalists, with little or no spiritual life. Yery well, divide by 
two once more, and we have one hundred million. These are real, 
living Christians. But you object that many of them are children 
and feeble women who can give but little, and are quite incapable 
of rendering effective, personal service. Then divide again by two, 
and we have left fifty million that can come and go and give 
and work. 

But the last fift}' million that we struck off is, after all, a great 
effective force. Poor it may be in money, but in proportion to 
their means the poor give more than the rich. Moreover, while 
poor in this world's goods, they are rich in faith and mighty in 
prayer — and prayer is an indispensable factor in saving the world. 
Once when Finney preached for a few weeks in Eochester a Chris- 
tian brother, unable through diffidence to speak to the people, but 
mighty in faith and in intercession, remained at the hotel to pray 
in secret while the great evangelist spoke to the throngs that gath- 
ered to hear him. Many turned unto God, and the might}^ preacher 
attributed the gracious result largely to the diffident brother, who 
pleaded where none but God heard for the salvation of those who 
listened at the church to the spoken Word. So these fifty millions 
set aside by us because they are poor and feeble, may wield the 
weapon of prayer — the most effective of all weapons in subduing 
the world to Christ. 

But all of 3"ou will admit that there are on this earth at least 
fiity millions of Christians that are able to do aggressive, efficient 
work. Divide the ten hundred millions of heathen by fifty mil- 
lion, and the quotient is twenty. Cannot one Christian preach 
the gospel to twent}^ heatEen? But, you say, that they are on the 
other side of the globe. True, but cannot two thousand of you 



720 TflE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

unite in sending one to preach the g03.pel to forty thonsand? Or 
five thousand unite in sending one to preach Christ to one hundred 
thousand? This is unquestionably feasible. This Union, with its 
two hundred thousand members, could put into the foreign mis- 
sion field forty missionaries. The Epworth League, on the same 
basis, could send and support three hundred, and, at a conserva- 
tive estimate, the United Society of Christian Endeavor could send 
five hundred missionaries to preach the gospel to the heathen. If 
this should be done, as it easily might be, by these young people's 
societies, it would wake up all Christendom to the supreme work 
of saving the whole world. And if each five thousand of the fifty 
millions of effective Christian workers should send one missionary, 
every one hundred thousand of the ten hundred millions of heathen 
would have one earnest Christian to preach to them the glad tidings 
of salvation from sin and death. Soon in every mission field men 
would be brought to God, and they in turn would become preach- 
ers to their own coimtrymen; so that throughout the whole world 
the evangelizing force would be rapidly and mightily augmented. 

But have we the men and women who are capable of doing this 
work ? Christianity is the mother of education. The church, where- 
ever it has gotten a foothold, has given birth to the school. Chris- 
tian nations abound in institutions of learning, public and pri- 
vate; are prolific in common schools, academies, colleges, semi- 
naries, and universities. Every year there are graduated from 
these schools hundreds of young men and women who have given 
themselves to Christ, and are ready to obey his call to any service 
demanded by him on the face of the globe. This statement is 
abundantly verified and reinforced by the Student Volunteer 
Movement. So there is no lack of consecrated workers. 

But such enterprises as this cannot be successfully prosecuted 
without money. Have Christians sufficient money for this work? 
"Christian nations are the wealthiest on the earth. Christianity 
uproots bad and costly habits, and replaces them with habits of 
temperance, frugality, and industry. Under its influence poverty 
largely disappears, and material resources accumulate. So it has 
come to pass that Christian nations own vastly more agricultural 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHAITGED RULERS. 721 

implements.^ manufacturing machinery, railroads, telegraph lines, 
ships, ocean cables, and banks than all the heathen nations com- 
bined. Before our e3'es the words of Jesus are being fulfilled : "The 
meek shall inherit the earth/^ So these fifty millions of Christians 
have money enough to plant and maintain missioni in every nation 
and province of the heathen world. 

l^ow, let us narrow our vision, and for a moment contemplate 
only the Baptists of these N'orthern States. There are about eight 
hundred thousand of them ; there may be more, there can scarcely 
be less. But, you say, many of them are poor, and are quite unable 
to give more than a pittance. Grant it, and cut down the number to 
five hundred thousand. These certainly are fully up to the aver- 
age in wealth. In our republic at the present time, if its wealth 
were equally distributed, each million of inhabitants would own 
more than a billion of property. We will say, however, only a bil- 
lion. Then these five hundred thousand Baptists have five hun- 
dred million dollars^ worth of property. We know that this is 
safely within the truth. There are one or two Baptists who prob- 
ably own more than that. Now, if these five hundred thousand 
Baptists should give 1 per cent, per annum on five hundred mil- 
lions — and they have more property than that — we would have 
five millions of dollars for mis^sions at home and abroad. If they 
should give one-half of 1 per cent., we would have two millions 
five hundred thousand dollars; if they should give one-quarter of 
1 per cent., we would have one million two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. But the sad fact remains that they do not give for 
home and foreign missions, through our national societies, even 
one-quarter of 1 per cent, on the property of which God has made 
them stewards. 

We have, then, both the requisite workers, and the money for 
preaching the gospel to the whole world. What is lacking ? Conse- 
cration? We ought to have more. Do we lack organization? 
No, but we are not yet specially organized to carry out the great 
commission. Only a few of the church up to the present hour have 
been really devoted to this primal Christian duty. When God re- 
vives his work, and the laymen in all our churches begin to feel 



722 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

that they, as well as their ministers, are called Tipon to disciple all 
the nations of the earth, we shall have somewhere, in Europe or 
America, another great Ecumenical Missionary Conference. 
Christians, without respect to nationality or denomination, will 
be there. There will be a larger number of laymen than there were 
in the Conference at New York. The rich Christian business men, 
who have the ability to inaugurate and triumphantly carry for- 
ward to completion great financial enterprises, will be there. They 
will say to each other: "The Lord our King, to whose will we 
bow, centuries ago said to his followers, ^Go, and make disciples 
of all nations,' and his command has never been fully obeyed. Let 
us try now to do his bidding. iiU that we have and are is from 
this time henceforth devoted to this supreme work.'' Then they 
will proceed to map out the whole earth, and to each denomination, 
according to its resources, will be assigned certain territory; and 
without daily provision will be made for preaching the gospel to 
all the inhabitants of our globe. It will be a general movement. 
The whole "sacramental host of God's elect" will be engaged in it. 
The time, the talent, the money,, not of a few, but of the whole 
church, will be consecrated to it. In twenty or twenty-five years 
every one of our race will have heard the glad tidings of salvation, 
and will have been urged to give his allegiance to our King. Do 
you say that the preaching of the gospel to every person on earth is 
a dream? It is the dream of our Lord. It will in his own good 
time become a glorious reality. 

Are there any evidences of its realization? Yes, many and con- 
vincing. In the days of my boyhood I used often to hear at the 
time of family prayer and in the churches the earnest petition 
that God would open the doors of the nations to Christian mis- 
sionaries. Those prayers are now answered. All governmental op- 
position to the gospel has been removed, and every door now stands 
wide open. Moreover, by steamships and ocean cables all the na- 
tions of the earth have been pressed so close together that they 
feel the beating of each other's hearts. We daily read, with ever- 
increasing interest, the telegraphic reports of the principal events 
transpiring among other peoples. We watch by means of electric 



THE KIN"GDOM THAT CHANGED RULERS. 723 

flashes the progress of military campaigns, or the deathly devasta- 
tions of famine and pestilence on the other side of the globe. We 
begin to see that each event makes for the weal or woe of the en- 
tire race; that from this time henceforth no nation like China or 
the United States can shut itself up in selfish isolation; that the 
great problems of statesmanship are world-wide^, and every nation, 
if it be worthy of perpetuity, mnst share in their solution. God in 
His providence is driving down deep into the consciousness of the 
nations the sense of universal brotherhood. At last the truth of 
PauFs declaration on Mars^ Hill, that G-od has "made of one blood 
every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth/^ is 
rising nnclonded upon the vision of mankind. 

!N'or can we forget, in onr survey of the proofs that the reign of 
Jesus Christ will eventually, if not speedily, prevail; that modern 
missions, though prosecuted with scanty means and in the face of 
stubborn opposition, have been wonderfully successful. On foreign 
mission fields, especially of our own denomination, Pentecost has 
again and again been far ou.tdone. But this period, stretching over 
only a few decades, has been only a sowing time. But not a seed 
planted in faith will remain unfruitful. And if even while we 
have been sowing the fruitage has been so abundant, what will 
the full, golden harvest be ? 

But our progress thus far has not been simply in seed sown and 
souls saved, but also in the silent, unobserved, yet real and ef- 
fective control acquired over the thinking of men who have re- 
fused to follow Christ as their Saviour and King. Unwittingly 
they have been swayed and mastered by him. A distinguished 
Hindu, not a Christian, has said that the whole thought of his 
people, though they still reject the gospel, has been changed by it 
and directed into new channels; and thus unnoted, there has been 
laid within their minds the foundation of a purer, higher civi- 
lization. So hosts of unbelievers in our own land are uncon- 
sciously molded and controlled by the truth of the gospel. Eobert 
IngersoU, a few years ago, gave to the people of Chicago his creed. 
Eobert Burdette, then the editor of the Burlington Rawlceye, 
printed it in his paper, and in a parallel column quoted passages 
of Scripture containing the identical thoughts expressed in the 



724 THE AMERICAE" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

articles of the atheist's creed. '^'^Long ago, Bob/^ he asserted, 
^'^Isaiah said this, and Paul that, and Moses that, and Christ that,'' 
in each instance quoting the words of the Biblical writer referred 
to, showing how the brilliant skeptic had all unconsciously drawn 
his creed from the Bible that he so constantly and bitterly ridi- 
culed. But there was one article in that creed for which no parallel 
was found in Scripture. IngersoU declared in that article that na- 
tions were pious in proportion to their primitiveness ; and opposite 
that Burdette said, "Ju&t so, Bob; the North American Indians, 
for instance." 

The atmosphere created by the Bible, and especially by the words 
of Christ, encompasses and pervades all minds and hearts. Men 
both in heathen and in Christian lands are imperceptibly touched 
and swayed by him to whom the kingdom of this world now 
rightfully belongs. Almost ever5^body now is discussing Christ; 
some with friendly, some with hostile intent; but in both friendly 
and hostile camps he is alike persistently praised. He elicits gen- 
eral admiration, and touches the deepest springs of human thought. 
This is the precursor of his absolute triumph. Those who get 
into contact with him he is sure to conquer. Those who have lived 
in ignorance of him at first touch seem to yield to his power. A 
few years ago, in London, the dock hands on the Thames struck 
for higher wages, and a great crowd of them gathered in Eegent's 
Park. An intelligent Christian laborer, haranguing them, told 
them how the man of Nazareth had spoken of the earth's toilers, 
and what He would tsay if he were now present. They listened in 
breathless silence, and when he had finished his speech, a burly 
laborer mounted a bench and said to the discontented multi- 
tude : "I never before heard of the Man of Nazareth, but if that's 
the way he talks, three cheers for the Man of Nazareth," And 
they were given with hearty good-will. 

The trend toward victory is also revealed by the modern atti- 
tude of skepticism. It has largely lost its former harshness and 
bitterness. Something of the love of Christ has touched and soft- 
ened it. In many instances it is at least outwardly pious. It 
quotes Scripture, even if it sometimes perverts it. It prays. At 
all events it often recites the Lord's Prayer. It comments with 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHANGED EULEES. 725 

emphasis on the phrase ^^Oiir Father/^ and criticizes Christians 
for their low and unworthy views of God. It is clear that if skep- 
tics are not submitting to our divine King, they are at least mak- 
ing obeisance. 

And now, keeping in view the great multitudes that have al- 
ready openly ranged themselves under the leadership of Christ, 
and the firm grasp that he has laid upon the subtle but mighty 
forces of thought throughout the world, do not fail to notice how 
strategically missions have been planted for the subjection of 
heathenism. If you take a missionary map of Asia or Africa, you 
will see that Christian missions dot the coast lines of these con- 
tinents, and have been scattered along the banks of their greatest 
rivers and on the shores of their great lakes. These missions have 
been started and maintained by many different religious denomina- 
tions without any collusion with each other. But he to whom the 
kingdom of this world belongs has, by unerring wisdom, directed 
all these movements. It is his campaign. And from the coasts of 
the oceans, the banks of fructifying rivers and the shores of shin- 
ing lakes these divisions of his mighty army, bearing high in front 
the cross, the sign by which they conquer, shall soon move in upon 
heathenism and overcome it by winning it to glad allegiance to 
our King. 

Then, when this conquest is made, what? Universal love will 
take the place of selfishness. What an absolute revolution that will 
be ! There will be no more family quarrels, of which selfishness 
is always the root; but each one of the household will strive by con- 
stant acts of disinterested love to serve all the rest. Neighborhood 
feuds will be banished from the earth, since each member of the 
community will seek not his own aggrandisement and glory, but the 
highest good and the greatest happiness of all those among whom 
he dwells. Then, also, the most abhorrent of all conflicts, a church 
quarrel, malignant strife among the followers of the Prince of 
Peace, will forever have passed away. Each member of the church 
will then carry out the apostolical injunction, ^^not looking each! 
of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of 
others." Where Christ reigns strife vanishes. 

In a western country church, two women, an "Euodia" and a 



'726 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

^^Syntyche/' quarreled. The other members took sides. The con- 
flict waxed hot, and the chnrch was in imminent danger of ex- 
tinction. A deacon from a city church visited these Christian 
belligerents, in order to save, if possible, the chnrch from ntter 
rnin. He went first to the honse of one of the warring sisters, and 
was conrteonsly received. As delicately as he conld he made known 
his errand. She agreed with him that strife among Christians in 
general was to be deplored, bnt insisted that her qnarrel was a 
righteons one. He assnred her that he should be very sorry to 
offend her by anything that he might say, but must ask her if she 
could repeat the Lord^s Prayer? "Of course I can,^^ she replied. 
"V^^ill you, then,^^ he said, "be so kind as to do it?^^ She began, 
"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy 
Engdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give 
us this day our daily bread. And" — There she stopped. The good 
deacon said, "Will you go on?'^ And she answered, "I don^t wish 
to." "Then," he said, "I will repeat it for you." "And forgive 
us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." 
By this time her eyes were filled with tears, and, half sobbing, she 
cried, "Oh, my God! I have not been forgiven for six months." 
The deacon said, "Shall I go and talk with the sister with whom 
you quarreled?" "Oh, no," she replied, "I will go at once and 
do that myself." She did so. There was mutual confession and 
forgiveness. Peace was restored. The church was once more united 
and happy. Christ began to reign there; and where he reigns there 
is fellowship and joy. 

Moreover, when Christ's triumph shall have fully come, there 
will be no more strikes. The benevolence of the King having 
taken possession of his subjects, the employer and the employee 
will seek each other's good ; there will be faithful service by the one 
and generous care by the other. Without the asking there will 
be an equitable distribution of profits among capitalists and 
laborers. 

JSTot only will individuals then have happy fellowship with each 
other, but nations also will be united in brotherly love. Instead of 
watching for opportunities to tear each other down, they will do 
what they can to build each other up. They will have free, unfet- 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHANGED EULERS. 7^7 

tered intercourse. There will be enacted no more Chinese Exclu- 
sion bills. They may now be a necessity. It is not only the privi- 
lege, but the duty of a nation, to secure its own perpetuit}^ — to 
defend itself against all corrupting influences both without and 
within. But when all nations are ranged under the banner of the 
cross, every man, whatever may be his nationalit}', will be permitted 
to go, without let or hindrance, wherever he may choose, on all the 
face of the earth. And then, of course, there will be no more war; 
no more grievous taxation in order to gather, equip and drill vast 
armies; no more steel-sheathed navies; no more frontier fortresses 
of granite and iron; no more destructive implements of slaughter; 
the sword will be beaten into the plowshare and the spear into the 
pruning-hook ; Krag-Jorgensen and Mauser rifles, the rifled can- 
non, the mail of mammoth man-of-war, will be fashioned into 
agricultural implements, and machinery for manufactories. All 
engines of destruction shall give place to instruments of produc- 
tion; the nations "shall learn war no more,^^ and so shall have the 
time and means to learn tliat which is good and useful. And the 
children of that day will be more amazed when they read of the 
armies, the navies, and the awful instruments of slaughter of our 
day, than our sons and daughters are in reading of the wars of the 
gods. 

Even then nations will probably be divided in judgment in refer- 
ence to great international questions; but instead of settling them 
by an appeal to arms, they will be peacefully decided by some in- 
ternational court of arbitration. !N'or, guided by the Word of 
God, do we expect that every person on earth will even then swear 
allegiance to our King; but those loyal to him will be in such pre- 
ponderance, that all his enemies shall be ^^as still as a stone," and 
^'they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain/^ saith 
the Lord. All men shall be actuated by love ; all shall live not for 
themselves but for their fellowmen and for their Lord. All shaU 
be God's servants, and in his service find their highest freedom and 
greatest happiness; and each revolving day shall hear the exultant 
song of thanksgiving and praise around the whole globe. 

Do you not desire to do something to usher in as speedily as 
possible a day so fraught with blessing to all mankind? Does any 



728 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

timid soul, weak in faith, shrink from the ardnons, self-sacrificing 
work necessary to secure a result so glorious? Difficult work, pro- 
vided it be of the utmost importance, always stirs manly souls to 
action. There are slumbering heroes in the "weak piping time 
of peace;" but when in opposition to oppressive, grinding tyranny, 
and in behalf of men deprived of their rightful liberty, the tocsin 
of war sounds, these heroes awake. They are eager for the most 
fatiguing duties, and shrink not from any deadly dangers, that 
they may strike down tyrants and give freedom to slaves. So when 
Christ, the rightful King of this world, calls you to proclaim him 
and his gospel to all peoples, he summons you to the most sublime 
of all tasks; to deliver not one, but all nations, from the slavery of 
sin and satan, and to confer upon them the liberty of the children 
of God. Is there one' among you who can loiter, and sleep and 
dream when your divine Lord calls you to a work so momentous, 
that besides it the measures of the wisest statesmen sink into insig- 
nificance ? 

Some years ago the English missionaries at Uganda, in Central 
Africa, were all murdered by the savages that they had gone thither 
to save, and a score of young men who had believed the gospel which 
they had preached were burned at the stake in the public square. 
The whole Christian world shivered at these deeds of barbarity and 
blood, and the brethren in England, who had planted and sus- 
tained the mission, were apprehensive lest this might put an end 
to their beneficent work in the heart of the Dark Continent. They 
called a meeting in London to which came many Christian stu- 
dents of Oxford and Cambridge. Before that large congregation 
of devoted men and women, they told with trembling hearts all 
that sad story of martyrdom. Then they ventured to ask if there 
were any young men present vdio would volunteer to take the places 
of those murdered missionaries; and now their weak faith was 
rebuked, and their breath was fairly taken away, when a hundred 
young men sprang to their feet, each one saying, "Send me." The 
more exacting and perilous the duty to which real believers are sum- 
moned by their King, the more mightily are they moved to do it. 
Is it possible that there is even one among you whose ears are so 
filled with the din of this world, that he cannot hear the voice of 



THE KINGDOM THAT CHANGED EULERS. 729 

his Lord calling him to the grandest work to which mortals were 
ever urged ? And can that trnmpet-call from the eternal King fail 
to stir yon to meet unmoved, in the path of duty, the greatest dan- 
gers, that yon may save the world for which he died ? Do yon hesi- 
tate, if it be necessary for the accomplishment of this great pur- 
pose, to die as he died? The servant is not greater than his Lord. 
In St. Lonis, during the time of the great Civil war, I was called 
one night to marry a volunteer cavalr}^ soldier. Immediately after, 
he rode away under the command of Zagon}T. toward Springfield, 
Missouri. In entering that city a charge was made between two 
lines of Confederate soldiers, and my friend was shot. For several 
hours he lay on the frosty ground, slowly bleeding; and then, faint 
and exhausted, he was put into an army wagon which went jolting 
over rough roads to EoUa, and from there he was sent by the cars 
to St. Louis. After a long search, I found him in an army hospital, 
so changed that I could not at once recognize him. He now pathe- 
tically told me the story of his suffering. He had been shot through 
the shoulder; the bone had been shattered; pieces of it had pro- 
truded from the wound and had been removed. He had preserved 
them. They were more precious to him than diamonds. He kept 
them neatly wrapped in a paper under his pillow. With his tremb- 
ling, emaciated hand he took them out, slowly and carefully un- 
wrapped them, and showed them to me. Then he put them back 
again under the pillow, and looking up, his eye began to gleam as 
he said, ^^The doctors say that I cannot recover. I think that they 
are mistaken. I shall get well. You see that it is the left shoulder 
that is wounded. When it heals it will be stiff, but I can still hold 
the reins of my horse in my left hand; and then, sir,^^ with great 
emphasis for an apparently dying man, he added, "I have one more 
shoulder for my country." He did live to fight many a hard battle 
thereafter. What nerved him and brought him up from the gates 
oi death was of vast worth. He was ready to give his right shoulder 
as well as his left in order to maintain the union of the states in its 
integrity — that the Potomac and the MissisGippi might run un- 
divided and unvexed to the sea — that the great experiment of a 
government by the people might not perish forever. But this ob- 
ject, great and important as it was, pertained to a single nation. 



730 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Biit the kingdom of our Lord overlaps all state boundaries; it in- 
volves the destiny of the whole race. It purposes to bring back 
to God, and loyally unite to him, all that are in revolt against him ; 
to restore all who will to fellowship with God from which sin has 
rudely wrenched them. To a work so fundamental, comprehensive, 
and beneficent you should be ready to give not only two shoulders, 
but two eyes, two hands, two feet, lips, and tongue, brain and heart 
and life itself. And when you, with all believers, do this, then the 
decisive and glorious victory will soon come. The new Jerusalem, 
the church triu.mphant, shall come down from God out of heaven, 
adorned as a bride for her husband, and the redeemed earth shall 
be taken up into heaven. Earth shall be heaven and heaven shall 
be earth, and both shall be full of the glory of the King by whom 
and in whom they have been united. 

And his coming glory is heightened and enriched by the words 
that immediately follow the text. ^^Great voices in heaven" not 
only said, "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of 
our Lord, and of his Christ," but added, "He shall reign for ever 
and ever." And all of you who work with him to save the world 
shall also reign with him f orevermore. 

The great congregation then sang with heart and soul: 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name, 
Let angels prostrate fall; 
Bring forth the royal diadem. 
And crown him Lord of all. 

" Let every kindred, every tribe, 
On this terrestrial ball. 
To him all majesty ascribe. 

And crown him Lord of all. 

" Oh, that, with yonder sacred throng, 
We at his feet may fall! 
We'll join the everlasting song. 
And crown him Lord of all." 



FRAXKLIX HOWARD KERFOOT was bom August 29, 1847. at 
'•'Llewellyn,'"' in Clarke county, Va. His father, Dr. Franklin J. Kerfoot, 
was a prominent physician and a warm-hearted, large-minded Christian 
gentleman, residing on his farm near Berry^'ille, Va. His mother's maiden 
name was Harriet Webb. She was from the Blue Grass section of Ken- 
tucky. She was a cultured, high-spirited woman of intellectual force and 
strongly-developed poetic nature. When young Kerfoot was thirteen years 
old the war between the States began, and the following session he was 
compelled to leave school in order to cultivate his father's farm. He had 
made good use of his e^.rly years, being well advanced in Latin, Greek, and 
mathematics. Just before the war ended, in his eighteenth year, he joined 
Col. John S. Mosby and his men. Returning home after peace was declared, 
he worked hard on the farm and ran a wheat-thresher for the nieghboring 
farmers. By his resistless energy he secured the funds for his future edu- 
cation. At the age of twenty he entered Columbian College, Washington, 
D. C, and in two years received the degrees of Bachelor of Philosophy and 
Bachelor of Law, afterwards receiving the degree of Master of Arts. But 
having strong convictions that he should preach, he entered the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary in 1869. On account of his health the next 
session he went Xorth and entered Crozer Seminary, in which school he 
graduated. Dr. James P.. Boyce about this time appointed him to the 
agency for raising money and sei-uring the co-operation of Southern colleges 
in the work of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which he con- 
tinued until Januaiy, 1873. He now made an eight months' tour of Europe, 
Egypt, and Palestine, then entered the L'niversity of Leipsic and followed 
special studies for a year. Returning home, he was called to the care of 
the Midway and Forks of Elkhom churches, in Kentucky. In 1877 he was 
asked for a second time to take a position in the Southern Baptist Theologi- 
cal Seminary. He accepted, but before entering upon his work he was 
called to succeed the celebrated Richard Fuller as pastor of the Eiitaw 
Place Church, in Baltimore. After due consideration he secured releaise 
from the Seminary and accepted this call. 

In 1883 he succeeded Dr. Wayland Hoyt at Strong Place Church, Brook- 
lyn, X. Y. After serving this church for about two years he was dreadfully 
lamed by a fall and had to use crutches for over a year. He resigned, re- 
turned to Kentucky, and was recalled by the Midway Church. Xot long 
after this he was elected as co-prof esisor with Dr. James P. Boyce in Syste- 
matic Tlieology and Pastoral Duties in the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, at ix)uisville. At the death of Dr. Boyce, in 1889, Dr. Kerfoot 
was elected full professor, also financial agent and treasurer of the Semi- 
nary, in which position he remained until the summer of 1899. He then 
resigned and wa.s elected corresponding secretary of the Home Mission 
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, holding the position up to the 
time of his death, which occurred at Atlanta, Ga.. on June 22, 1901. His 
life-long friend. Dr. Henry McDonald, delivered his funeral oration, and 
his body was laid to rest in the beautiful Blue Grass section at Shelby^'ille, 
Ky. Dr. Kerfoot was a man of commanding appearance, had a strong, 
musical voice, and was one of the most popular of our preachers and denomi- 
national leaders. His death was a great loss to the South. In rightly esti- 
mating the influences which helped him to be so useful those who knew 
. him best will never forget the power of the noble, charming, Christian 
woman who stood by his side in his work for the denomination. 
(7.31) 




¥m 



1 1., LL. i. 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAIXTS. 733 

LXII 
THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAIISTTS* 



By Feaxexix Howard E^erfoot^ D. D., LL. D., 

Home Mission Boards Southern Baptist Convention. 

*^e know tliat all tTiings work together for good to them that love 
God."— Rom. 8 : 28. 

IF I were asked to name the tluee greatest chapters in G-od's 
Word, I should, without hesitation, name the twenty-third 
Psalm, the fourteenth chapter of John and the eighth chapter of 
Eomans. And of these three the eighth of Eomans is the greatest. 
It seems to me that this chapter is like a great Alpine range among 
the mountains of Scripture. It is a series of sunlit summits, 
illumined by the smile of God. See how these peaks rise one above 
the other, higher and higher, and ever higher. The very first verse 
of the chapter declares : "There is, therefore, now no condemna- 
tion to them that are m Christ Jesus." What a lofty peak is this, 
upon which a soul may stand ! It is the peak of justification. And 
as we read on to the fourteenth verse, we climb to a still higher sum- 
mit, which says: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of Grod, 
they are the sons of God." What a lofty peak is this ! It is the 
peak of adoption. And then, very close to this, we read : "And if 
children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.''^ 
And yet again : 'Tf so be that we sufier with him, that we may be 



*This was one of Dr. Kerfoot's favorite sermons. The last time perhaps 
that it was preached was at the Baptist State Convention of Texas at 
Waco in 1900. A Texas correspondent of the Biblical Recorder of North 
Carolina says of that occasion: "After a great speech hy Dr. B. H. Carroll 
on *The Century,' Dr. Kerfoot preached a morning sermon on ^All Things 
Work Together for Good/ and no tongue can describe the scene that fol- 
lowed. The congregation rose and sang ^ow Firm a Foundation,' while 
men shouted, wept, embraced, and struggled to express the inexpressible joy 
within them. Think of an audience of twenty-five hundred people rushing 
and surging to shake hands and embrace, climbing over chairs, waving 
hands and handkerchiefs. It was wonderful — ^wonderful!" 



734 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

also glorified together." And so it is, peak after peak, higher and 
higher, nntil we reach onr text, which is the very Mont Blanc sum- 
mit of all this exalted range. It says: "We know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God." Or, as the same 
thought is expressed in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses: 
"Eor I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powersi, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing shall separate ns from 
the love which God has for ns in Christ Jesns." This is the siun- 
mit, brethren, to which I wish to lead yon this morning : 

THE ASSUEED SAFETY OF TPIE SAINTS 

Let me say, at the outset, that I do not propose to proceed by any 
path of my own making. Fortunately a path was blazed out long 
years ago by a far better guide than I am — ^the path which was 
trodden by the Apostle Paul as he climbed to this eminence, under 
the special guidance of the Holy Spirit. My desire to-day is 
only to put my feet in the very tracks which Paul made, to lead 
you by the very way that the Spirit of God led Paul, until we can 
say with him, if God will : "We know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God." If you will take your Biblesi, 
when you go to your homes, and begin at this twenty-eighth verse 
of the chapter, and read to the end, you will find that all the rest 
of the chapter is simply Paul's proof that this thing is true, that 
"all things work together for good to them that love God." And 
hence, what I have to do is just to take up what Paul says, point by 
point, and simply give you his argument — ^not my argument — • 
and try to open it up before you. 

The whole argument may be summed up in this statement : We 
know that all things work together for good tO' them that love God, 
because God the Pather and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, ' 
are all absolutely and irrevocably committed to the welfare of God's 
people. Just before the verse which I have for my text, he has 
brought out the absolute committal of the Holy Spirit. And now, 
in special connection with my text, he goes on to show the equally 
absolute and irrevocable committal of God the Father and of 
Christ the Son, to every one who has been called according to the 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAIXTS. 735 

purpose of God, to ever}' one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Our special business to-day is to look at the argument which shows 
this conmiittal of the Father and of the Son to every child, of God. 

I. THE COMMITTAL OF GOD THE FATHER. 

He first brings out and emphasizes the committal of God the 
Father. 

1. Whom he forehnew. This means that God had his mind on us 
before we ever had our minds on him. He was concerned about us 
long before we were concerned about him. Elsewhere in the 
Bible this concern on God's part is said to be from the foundation 
of the world, and even from eternity. This rs to us a stupendous 
and almost bewildering thought. But anyone who really thinkS;, 
must know that it is true. Xo architect ever built a house that 
the plan of that house was not in his mind before he ever sti'uck 
spade to dirt or hammer to stone. Look at these buildings about 
■QS. I will warrant you that every one of them was not only in the 
mind of the architect before he began to build, but that every one 
of them was so clearly in his mind that he had drawn them all 
upon papers, had even laid down the specifications for each build- 
ing, so that those who were to own them could see them for them- 
selves and Imow what was to go into them before they were built. 
Is God less of an architect than a human being? Many of you 
have heard the story of Michael Angelo, who was passing through 
Italy on one occasion with some of his companions, and was seen to 
&top and kneel down on the ground and scrape away the dirt. One 
of his companions asked him what he was doing, and he said : "I see 
an angel in this stone." And he did. His artist eye had seen the 
angel which he would bring from that stone before he ever put 
chisel to stone, or hammer to chisel. And so, bretlrren, when we 
realize that this must be true of human architects — of human ar- 
tists — we know that whether we can comprehend the infinite God 
or not, he must have foreloiown every child of his who should be 
saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

2. And whom he forekneiv, them he predestinated to he con- 
formed to the image of his So7i. Then the apostle goes right on 
in the very next sentence, and says : "And whom he foreknew, them 



736 THE AMEEICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." 
Not only had he set his mind "upon ns^ not only did he have ns in 
his foreknowledge, not only did he foresee all things, but he pre- 
destinated that every one who had been called according to his pur- 
pose, that is, every one who has believed on the Lord Jesns Christ, 
shall be conformed some day to the image of his Son. 

We run here upon that difficult doctrine of predestination. If 
I had been going to pick a text for this audience to-day, I should 
not have picked the doctrine of predestination on which to speak. 
But here is the doctrine, connected with the text, and laid down 
as one of the reasons why Paul says that "all things work together 
for good to them that love God," and I do not propose to dodge it. 
Let ns look at it. It is one of those doctrines of the Word of God 
to which I suppose the Apostle Peter referred when he said : "Our 
brother Paul has written some things hard to be understood, which 
the ignorant and unlearned wrest to" their destruction." That is 
exactly what some people do with this doctrine. I have heard men 
say: "If I was born to be hanged, I will never be shot." I have 
seen soldiers just before the charge in battle almost blasphemous 
before God in defying a bullet in the gun of some of the enemy 
to hit them. This was simply foolhardiness. It was recklessness. 
It was an absolute abuse of the doctrine of predestination. The 
Apostle Paul made no such use of the doctrine. There are other 
people who use the doctrine of predestination as a doctrine for 
metaphysical hair-splitting. They undertake to do with it what 
no sane, no mortal man, can do. They undertake to harmonize in 
all its details this strange doctrine with human freedom and hu- 
man free agency. Priends, the Word of God does not mention the 
doctrine of predestination for any such purpose as that. It was 
not put there for philosophical speculation. 

And yet again, I have found unconverted people who have hung 
on the doctrine of predestination, and would not unite with a 
church of the Lord Jesus Christ because they could not feel sure 
that they were predestined from eternity to be saved. 

Why, my dear friends, an unconverted man has no more to do 
with the doctrine of predestination than if it had never been put 
into the Bible. There are some things in the Bible for Christians, 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAINTS. 73?' 

and there are some things for sinners. The Word of God to an 
nnconyerted man is : ^'God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life.^^ "Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give yon rest." If you are laboring or 
heavy laden, God's Word says, "Come." If yon desire to come, God's 
invitation stands, and yon have nothing to do with the doctrine of 
predestination. Brethren, never allow an inquirer to drag you from 
the main point : "Will you receive Jesus ?" by any talk on predesti- 
nation. 

And yet again, I have found young Christians, who, somehow, 
want to jump right into the doctrine of predestination almost as 
soon as they are converted. But this doctrine was not put into 
God's Word for tyros. As Dr. Shedd says: "This is one of the 
higher ranges of doctrine." It is one o-f the great doctrines of 
Scripture. And you can be a Christian for some years yet before 
you can climb it. I heard of a man who had a very pious old slave 
in slave times. The young man had been very godless, and the old 
slave had prayed for him very earnestly. At last his young master 
was converted, and the very next day after he was converted, he 
was talking with his old negro about the doctrine of predestination. 
The old negro said: "^N'ow, massa, it seems to me you is getting 
along mighty fast. You was jist born yisterday into the kingdom 
of God ; and here you is to-day working at the deepest and hardest 
things of the Word of God. Hadn't you better learn some of the 
plain things first ?'^ 

N'o, friends., the doctrine of predestination was not put into 
the Word of God to make difficulties out of it. And let me say 
that putting it there has not made the matter one whit more diffi- 
cult either. We should have had all the difficulties of predestina- 
tion am^way — or what seems to be fatalism — if it had never been 
mentioned in the Bible. But the doctrine being a truth, is men- 
tioned in the Bible, and strange enough, the apostle mentions it in 
this most practical chapter as an argument for saying: "We know 
that all things work together for good to them that love God." 
It was all practical with Paul. It was not metaphysical; it was 



738 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT 

practical. To him it meant only, as Bickerstith pnts it, that 
"These little lives of oiirs are interwoven with God's eternal pur- 
poses/^ This is all that Paul meant by this doctrine. "God has 
had his mind on ns before we had our minds on him. And he 
has purposed that we ishall be conformed to the image of his son. 
And earth and hell cannot keep ns from it." The doctrine of 
predestination was to the apostle what a great harbor often is 
to a storm-tossed mariner. Sometimes the ships used to come across 
the Atlantic against adverse winds. They became all coated over 
and weighted down with ice. And, before the Gnlf Stream was 
fonnd, they had to put into the West Indies, into some great har- 
bor, and there, npon the smooth waters, snrronnded by the splendid 
hills, and bathed in the warm sunshine of heaven, the ice melted 
ofi, and the ship rose again for her voyage, and could put forth from 
her harbor with new buo3^ancy and strength. So to the great apostle 
this doctrine of predestination meant simply that somehow "these 
little lives of ours are interwoven with God's eternal purposes.'' 
This doctrine was the harbor into which, when his soul had been 
tossed by the tempest, when it had been driven almost, as it seemed, 
to destruction, his vessel could ride at anchor, in faith, surrounded 
by the eternal hills, sheltered from every stormy wind that blows, 
bathed in the sunshine of God's eternal love, and feel everlastingly 
safe from everything that could harm. This is what the doctrine 
is here for. It is practical. Why, sometimes I have had Methodists 
come up to me and say : "Well I believe in that kind of predestina- 
tion just as much as you do.'"' And I think they ought to. For this 
is what God's Word teaches, and a glorious doctrine it is. 

I remember when I was pastor in Baltimore, I had a woman in 
my congregation who had been very anxious about her soul's salva- 
tion. She was a highly cultivated woman. She was a teacher in^ 
a young ladies' seminary, the principal of it, a school of very high 
grade. She had passed the age of childhood, and had almost passed 
the age of youth. She did not find it easy to become a little child, 
and accept the Lord Jesus Christ with childlike faith. The strug- 
gle with her was long and hard. But, at last, by the grace of God, 
she was enabled to trust herself absolutely to the Saviour for sal- 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OE THE SAINTS. 739 

vation. And one morning after preaching, I gave an invitation for 
anyone who desired to do so to come and unite with the church. 
This woman came to the front seat, and I went down from the 
pulpit to receive her experience, and tell it to the congregation. In- 
stead of having an3i;hing to say to me, she put into my hand just 
one sheet of paper, and on that paper there were written three 
stanzas, to me the best presentation of this great doctrine in its 
proper relations that I have ever seen, in the books or out of them. 
As I read the paper, I found written upon it these words : 

"I sought the Lord, but afterwards I knew 
He moved my soul to him who sought for me. 
It was not that I found, Saviour true; 
Noj I was found of thee. 

Thou didst stretch forth thy hand and mine enfold; 
I walked and sank not on the storm- vexed sea, 
But not so much that I on thee had hold, 
As by thy hold on me. 

And now I walk, I love; but ah! the whole 
Of love is but my answer. Lord, to thee; 
Lord, thou wast long beforehand with my soul. 
Always thou lovedst me." 

And, brethren, is there a man or a woman here who does not 
realize in his or her experience that this expresses exactly the truth ? 
You thought you came to Christ. You thought you sought the 
Saviour. You thought you walked. And you did exercise as 
absolute freedom of the human will as ever you did in any act in all 
your life. But as the years go by, you have come to feel; ^^I am 
what I am by the grace of God." 

"I sought the Lord, but afterwards I knew 
He moved my soul to him who sought for me." 

This is predestination. This is God^s agency. This is God's 
providence over us. But, oh ! do not go to splitting hairs over the 
doctrine. Just fall back on it sometimes in the midst of life's strug- 
gles and conflicts as you would fall upon the bosom and into the 
arms of the infinite Jehovah, and realize that "these little lives of 



740 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

OTirs" — Oh, blessed be God! — "these little lives of ours are inter- 
woven with God's eternal purposes/' 

3. '^And whom he predestinated, them he also called/' But the 
apostle goes on. He has not by any means reached the end of his 
argnment. He says, "And whom he predestinated, them he also 
called/' God has taken a great deal of trouble to get ns saved. He 
has been after ns throngh all the years to bring ns to salvation. He 
has sent ns his gospel message, and has ordered it to go all the world 
aronnd. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature/' at home and abroad. The gospel message has been sent 
to all mankind. Bnt, more than that, he has given the inward 
and effectual call to every heart that has ever yet accepted Jesus. 
N'ot one in all the myriads of the redeemed has ever yet accepted 
Jesus without this effectual call of the Holy Spirit of God upon the 
heart. He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his 
son, and then he has called us, called us with the outward call, 
called us with the inward, effectual call. "Whom he predesitinated 
them he also called." 

4. And luhom he called them he also justified. Here is a still 
further committal to us on God's part. "Whom he called, them he 
also justified." There has been a high court held in heaven over 
the case of each of God's children. And no judge ever sat upon the 
bench and said to the officer of the court, "Let the prisoner go free" 
any more truly than God has sat upon the throne of the universe 
and said: "There is, therefore, now no condemnation," "Let the 
sinner go free." ^o condemnation ! "Free from the law, oh happy 
condition." '^hom he hath called, them he hath also justified." 

5. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. Why, he has 
forgotten to use the future tense ! 'No, he did it on purpose. The 
thing is so absolutely sure that he speaks of it as if it had passed. 
Whom he called, whom he justified, them he also glorified. 

N'ow, this is the first part of the argument. But only a part. 
Let us see what the conclusion is from this much. Listen ! "What 
shall we then say to these things ?" If these things be true, what 
shall we say ? Why this : "If God be for us who can be against 
us ?" That is his argument. Logic on fire, but logic none the less. 
"If God be for us, who can be against us,?" 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAINTS. 741 

But this is not all. He has another, and a crowning argument to 
prove the complete committal of God the Father to every child of 
his. 

6. He spared not his own Son. What he has said before seems 
strong. Bnt it is as nothing compared to this. So concerned is 
God for the salvation and welfare of his chosen ones that he actnall}^ 
did not spare his own Son, bnt delivered him np for ns all. 0, 
my soul ! If I only knew to-da^ how to make yon all feel, and how 
to feel myself what it meant to God to give his Son, Jesns Christ, 
for ns, and to spare him not! 

There is one passage in the Bible that comes nearer to bringing 
this to my mind than any other. And that is the passage that my 
brother read this morning abont Abraham being called npon to 
offer up his only son, Isaac. Did yon pay attention to the read- 
ing of that chapter? ISTow think of it: God had promised Abra- 
ham years before to give him that child. And Abraham waited 
until it wO'uld seem that faith was past faith and hope was past hope. 
And at last, when the darkness had become so dense that there was 
no light in it, then the dawn came, and the boy wsbh given to 
him. And then God permitted this boy to grow up about his 
father's knee, from day to day and month to month, until years 
passed into j^ears, before this test came. Ah, me ! It seems to me 
it would not have been so hard, if God had called upon him to give 
up his boy when he was an infant. Those of us who have laid our 
children in the grave know the difference. I have stood over the 
open grave where three of my children, scarcely two months of 
age, were laid away. It tore the mother's heart. But those chil- 
dren somehow had not wrought themselves into the father's life. 
But in the providence of God, the time came when he permitted a 
sweet little girl to grow up in my home, and about my knee, and 
in the father's lap, and in the father's arms, year after year, until 
she was twelve years of age. I used to tell my wife sometimes that 
in all this wide, wide earth, I should never know a love like that 
child's love for her father. She was the only father's child in all 
the family. And yet, after all this, in the wisdom of God, and in 
his dark, inscrutable providence, he called upon me to give her up. 



743 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

When she was between twelve and thirteen years of age, I saw her 
dying daily for four or ^ye months, after the fatal shaft had struck 
her heart. And, 0, my God! no man and no woman who has not 
gone through it, knows the agony and the anguish of giving np a 
child after it has thns wrought itself into the life and into the heart; 
and when the tendrils have gathered all abont ns, until they have 
become a very part of ns. That is exactly what God did with Abra- 
ham. He let that boy grow up in the home until he was about 
thirteen years of age, until he had become the joy and pride of the 
father's heart. And then God came to him one day, and said: 
^•^ Abraham !'' And Abraham said, "Here am I, Lord." And God 
said: "I want j^ou to take your son, your only son, Isaac, and I 
want you to go to a place that I will show you, and make an offer- 
ing of him.'' Brethren, it was an awful test. I will venture to 
say he did not tell Sarah that morning where he was going. If 
he had, there would have been a home scene, and he would hardly 
have gotten away with the child, unless he had done it with force. 
For, somehow, for once — so seldom in all the world's history — but 
for once the woman's faith was not equal to the faith of the man. 
Well, he got away from home. He took Isaac and went on a three 
day's journey. And, do you know, it seems to me that made it 
harder. If it had been a word and a blow and over, it would have 
been somewhat of a relief to his suffering. But, no ; he must travel 
three whole days by the side of that boy, and hear his childish talk, 
and answer him, giving no intimation of the suffering that was 
in his soul, as if nothing of the kind were happening. And then, 
at the end of the three days, he said to the servants : "Do you stay 
here, and I and the lad will go jondex and sacrifice." And they 
start off. I have never read a more pathetic incident in any book, 
sacred or profane, than that conversation that took place between 
Abraham and Isaac as they were starting. Isaac looked up into 
his father's face, and said: "My father. Behold the fire and the 
wood, but where is the sacrifice?" And I fancy Abraham must 
have gulped down a great sigh, and turned his head, as the tears 
rained down his cheeks, when he said, "My son, God will provide a 
sacrifice." Brethren, it was awful. But they go to that hill — 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OE THE SAINTS. 743 

a hill wliicli is supposed to be ver}^ close to the hill on which Jesus 
Christ was offered — and there he built an altar. And then Isaac 
got the first intimation of it, when the father seized him and laid 
him upon the altar, and bound him, and put forth his hand to take 
the knife to sla}^ his son. But just as he did this, God called out 
of heaven and said, "Abraham ! Abraham f And Abraham stopped, 
and God said, "Harm not the child. ^' And gave him, as a substi- 
tute, a ram caught in the bushes. 

!N'ow, I suppose that nine-tenths of the people who read that 
chapter would find something in it about atonement, about sub- 
stitution. If 3^ou do, j^ou won^t find it in the sacrifice of Isaac. 
The doctrine of atonement and the doctrine of substitution are 
all through the Bible. But I do not believe that that incident of 
the call on Abraham to offer Isaac was meant to teach the doctrine 
of substitution or of sacrifice. What was it meant to teach ? What 
did God say when he stopped him? "N'ow I know that I have 
exemplified the doctrine of atonement?" Not a word of it. But, 
"]^ow I know that thou hast regard for me, seeing that thou hast 
not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." All of this was the 
testimony, the crowning testimony, that Abraham gave to God 
of faith in him and of love for him. This is, to my mind, the mean- 
ing of that strange transaction. 

And all this is, I think, a type of this of which the apostle speaks 
of when he says: "He spared not his own Son, but gave him up 
for us all." 

I see God also moving upon a long journey, with his only begot- 
ten Son. He starts upon that journey from the very gates of Para- 
dise, with the first promise of a Eedeemer. And side by side he and 
the Eternal Son move all the way from Paradise to Calvary. They 
come at last to Gethsemane, and I hear the Saviour say to* the 
disciples : "Do you abide here, and I wiU go yonder." And going 
there, he falls down upon his face. He is now also in company 
with the Father only, and he prays : "0, Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me." But the Father spares him not. And 
time and time again he prays. And so heavy is the awful load that 
great drops of bloody sweat oozed from the pores of his skin and 
dropped upon the ground. Brethren, did you ever think that it was 



744 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

cold that night? And yet he was sweating drops of blood in his 
agony of soul. A little while after, on the same night, the strong, 
vigorous disciples and servants had to have a fire by which to warm 
themselves. But there was no need of a fire in Gethsemane for 
heat. For the Savionr^s sonl was on fire and his skin sweat blood. 
The Father spared him not. Then, going on from there, he went 
before Pilate^s bar, and through Herod^s hall ; and a crown of thorns 
was put upon him and a purple robe. And then came the cross. 
And he bore it along the Via Dolorosa until he fell beneath it. At 
last, by the help of another. Calvary is reached, and there they 
nailed him to the cross — there was no ram caught in the bushes 
now — and the cross was lifted up and it was dropped into the open- 
ing made for it in the ground. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
hung bleeding and dying upon it. "God spared not his own Son, 
but gave him up for us all.'^ My brethren, there are some theolo- 
gians who say that God cannot suffer. I do not know where they 
get this from. I have a feeling, a deep conviction, that God the 
Father must inevitably have experienced some feelings when he 
saw his only Son bleeding on the cross, which he had not had in 
the infinite beatitude and bliss of his eternal companionship with 
his Son. I notice our books on theology are very particular to dis- 
cuss the intellectual faculties of God and his resemblance to men in 
all points of intellect. I notice they are very careful, also, to 
epeak of the will of God. But have you ever noticed how seldom 
the books on theology make mention of the emotions of God ? But 
isnH suffering an emotion, and isn^t a part of our likeness to God 
our emotional nature as well as our intellect and our will power? 
Why, it seems to me as if, when Jesus died on Calvary, all heaven, 
for the time, must have been draped in mourning; and that the 
very angels must have swooned as they witnessed the spectacle ; and 
that the great heart of the infinite Father must have been fairly 
convulsed as he witnessed that spectacle of his own Son dying on 
Calvary. I would take the shoes off of my feet while I speak on 
such a theme. I would not claim to know. But oh, my soul! It 
must have cost God something to give hit own Son to die that we 
should b© saved. And yet, says the apostle: "He spared not his 



THE ASSURED SAFETY OF THE SAINTS. 745 

own Son^ but gave him up for ns all." And then he adds : "How 
shall he not with him, also, freely give ns all things?" What can 
harm, what can harm for any length of time, when God has done 
all this for every one whoi believes in Jesns Christ ? And he adds : 
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of G-od^s elect? It is God 
that jnstifieth; who is he that condemneth? 

II. THE COMMITTAL OF GOD THE SON. 

And now we come to another point. We take np the committal 
of the Son, the Lord Jesns Christ — ^the absolute committal of the 
Son — to every one that believes on him. "It is Christ," he says, 
"that died." We have a Friend at court in heaven besides the 
infinite Father. And he loved us enough and he waG concerned 
enough about us, to die for us. He did it of his own will, in the 
covenant with the Father. He died for you and me. And what 
one hasi died for, if he ever has a chance to live again, he will as- 
suredly live for, after he has once died for it. 

There are strange and mystic bands woven in the loom of suf- 
fering. 1^0 bands on this earth are woven so strong as the bands 
that are woven by suffering. I have sometimes thought that the 
real explanation of a mother's love, as compared with a father's 
love, lies largely in this fact. The mother suffers for the child as 
the father never can. I shall never forget, in my pastorate once, 
I went into an humble home in the city, and I found there a poor, 
stricken mother. She had just lost her child. It was a crippled 
child, possibly eight or ten years of age; and, in the depths of my 
soul, I could not but feel that it was a great mercy of God that the 
little child had been taken home. Its parents were as poor as 
they could be. They lived in what was little better than an alley 
of the great city. They had none of the comforts of life, and that 
little thing was a constant sufferer. I never had had any children 
of m.y own then. Hence I had never seen any of them suffering. 
I did not know what it naeant to lose a child. I tried to comfort 
that good woman as well as I could. I said: "N'ow, my sister, I 
know it is a hard thing for you to give up your child." Human in- 
stinct told me that. "But you know that the little one was a crip- 
ple; you know it would always have been a sufferer; you know it 



746 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

had no future before it in the world but pain and triaL And can- 
not yon feel that the dear little child is safer and better ojff every 
way in the arms of Jesus than it conld possibly be in yonr arms ?" 
She said : "Oh ! Mr. Kerf oot, that is what John [her husband] says 
to me; and the other nighty, when I was weeping and sobbing in 
bed, away in the late hours of the night, John turned and said: 
^Don^t cry. The little child is better oS than it could ever have 
been with us/ and I said: John, 3'OU don't know anything about 
it. You don't know what you are talking about. You never suf- 
fered for that child as I did. You never lay awake at night and 
heard its sobs and moans, and pressed it to your bosom, and felt 
that every one of them was like a knife in your own heart. Oh, 
John, don't tell me not to cry. It has torn my very life in two. It 
has broken my heart. I cannot help crying for my child.'^ 

And yet God says : "Shall a mother forget her sucking child, the 
child of her womb, that she bare ? Yea, she may forget, yet will not 
I forget thee, Jerusalem. Behold thy name is engraven upon the 
palms of my hands, and thy walls are ever before me.^' And of 
Jesus, the Apostle says he has died for us. "It is Christ that died." 
But blessed be God, that is not all. After dying he rose again. "It 
is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, and maketh inter- 
cession for us." It is not a dead Christ in whom we trust, but a 
risen Saviour, and a risen Saviour who has his death to plead for us 
as he makes his intercession. 

I recall now having read a pathetic story in Dr. Eobert L. Dab- 
ne/s Life of Stonewall Jackson, just after the war, which has clung 
to me through all the years. When that great general, a sort of 
war-god to his soldiers, and almost the idol of the Southern Con- 
federacy, was shot upon the field at Chancellorsville, and died, he 
was laid out in state in the rotunda of the capitol at Eichmond. 
All day long the citizens and soldiers passed by, taking their last 
look at the face of the dead general. At length the sun went down, 
and the command came to the sentinel that the door should be 
closed, and that no one else should be admitted. But presently 
there came along a poor, belated straggler. At his arm there 
hung a sleeve that was almost empty. He came up, clothed in his 



THE ASSURED SAEETT OE THE SAIXTS. 747 

tattered gray, grizzled, if not begrimed, and said to the sentinel: 
"I want to take a view of General Jackson."^ The sentinel told 
him that the orders had come that the doors should be closed, 
and that no one could enter. The soldier, soldier though he was, 
and knowing what orders meant to soldiers, pleaded with the senti- 
nel to let him see the face of his chieftain. The sentinel, of course, 
had to be firm, until at last the poor man, in his desperation, lift- 
ing what remained of his arm, and shaking his empty sleeve, said: 
"By this arm, which I lost upon the field of battle, as I followed my 
general, I demand to see his face again before he is buried forever 
from my sight." Brethren, tliat was a mighty plea. The soldier 
had to obey his orders. But it was a tremendous plea ; and if ever 
a sentinel would have been justified in yielding to a plea, it seems 
to me that man would. But we have the Lord Jesus Christ to 
intercede for us. He is at God^s right hand, and a mighty and 
all prevailing plea he has. 

"Five bleeding wounds he bears. 
Received on Calvary: 
They pour effectual prayers — 
They strongly plead for me." 

This is our assurance, Oh, blessed be God I God the Father is 
committed. Jesus Christ the Son is committed. The Holy Spirit 
is committed. 

And now hear the apostle as he draws a conclusion at this point : 
'^Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Did you ever 
read this chapter in its connection? Listen! ^^TTho shall separate 
us from the love of Christ?" This is his conclusion from that 
argument. What is there under the sun that God is going to let 
permanently harm his people ? What shall separate us ? Xothing ! 
Absolutely nothing! It cannot be that God the Father and God 
the Son, thus committed to us, are going to let anything harm us. 
All things must work together for good to them that love God. 

But just here comes an apparent flaw in the argument. And be- 
fore the final inference is drawn, the apostle must pause to notice it. 
What about all of these tribulations that are allowed to come upon 



748 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

God's people. They oftentimes have tribulation on tribulation. 
He knew that this thought would force itself upon some who 
read; and so^ when he asks them plainly the question, "Who shall 
separate us from the love of Christ ?" He also asks, "Shall tribula- 
tion, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?'' 
"Ah !" he says, "it does look that way sometimes. Why, people have 
written about it, and one has said: ^We are led like sheep to the 
slaughter. We are killed all the day long.' And they have asked, 
^Why this tribulation? Why do God's people have to suffer so? 
Why these afflictions ? Why all this trouble that comes ?' " Paul 
was willing, in his argument, to face all these. Thank God, he 
wafi no dodger, he was willing to meet the issue. 

There are some ministers who are tempted sometimes to get 
young people into their churches on the idea that they are going to 
have a better time after becoming Christians than they ever had 
before — even in this world. They talk as if one might be borne to 
heaven "on flowery beds of ease." I would rather let my arm fall 
from its socket, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth than 
try to get anyone to come into a church of Jesus Christ on the idea 
that he is going to be free from tribulation, and have a better time 
with respect to this world than he could have outside of the church. 
I know that "godliness is profitable in all things, having the prom- 
ise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." But, 
brethren, in the promise of "the life that now is," it does not 
mean exemption from suffering. It does not mean exemption from 
pain. N'o ! no ! For I read in the book of Eevelation that when 
that great day shall come and the mighty hosts shall be gathered, 
and all the redeemed shall be clothed in white, and the question is 
asked: "Who are these arrayed in white?" the answer shall be: 
"These are they that have come up out of great tribulation" — 
great tribulation — "having their robes washed and made white in 
the blood of the Lamb." 

Many a time has a Christian, like old Jacob, been compelled to 
say, "All these things are against me." Many a time have God's/ 
people been compelled to say : "Who is sufficient for these things ?" 
Sometimes burdens are so heavy that it does seem as if death were 



THE AS5UEED SAFETY OE THE SAIXTS. 749 

a thousand times sweeter than life. Tribulation^ and persecution, 
and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword; sufferings by 
land, and sufferings by sea, and sufferings from false brethren, and 
sufferings from enemies, and sufferings everywhere. 0, God I what 
a world of suffering is this ! Suffering for God^s people as well 
as for others. And sometimes for these children of God the fur- 
naces are heated seven times hotter. 

But did that break Patd's logic ? Xo 1 no I He piles it up and 
then mounts upon it and rises to higher things. TThat does he say ? 
Listen ■ "Tn all these things we shall be more than conquerors 
through him that loved us.'^ This is the way in which he meets the 
objection. As one has said : Paul seems to have been familiar with 
a scene that often occurred in the city of Piome. The great armies 
of Eome were sent out on a long campaign. There were terrible 
enemies they had to meet. They met these enemies in the marshes 
and the swamps and in the dense forests and thickets, and crossing 
the rivers, and everwhere; and many a brave Eoman soldier went 
down before these terrible foes. And many a battle seemed lost. 
And oftentimes the men found themselves htmdreds of miles from 
home, appalled by the dangers and difi&ctdties of the campaign, and 
some of the bravest lost heart. They were ready to give up. But 
they followed their general; they obeyed their orders: thev were 
willing to die in their tracks, if their country demanded it. At last 
victory perched upon their banners; their conquests were magni- 
fic-ent. And then, when the campaign was over, they turned their 
faces homeward, with their tattered banners, to be welcomed by 
their country. And now again they have crossed the plains and 
the sea, they have come into Italy ; they are outside of the Imperial 
City; the word has been passed along, days before, that the army 
is returning ; everything is ready to receive them. The flags are 
fl}ung from every house, and from every place where a flag could 
be displayed. The triumphal arch has been built just inside the 
gate; in the morning the victorious hosts will enter. And when, 
at last, the morning comes, the troops march through under the 
triumphal arch and into the streets of the city, amid the acclaim 
of ten thousand and thousands of people, who line the streets, and 



750 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

from as many more who watch from the windows and the house- 
tops. But as these old battle-scarred veterans marched down the 
streets of Eome towards the Capitol^ and the people are shouting 
themselves hoarse, there is witnessed a strange spectacle. Look 
yonder! What does it mean? See those ragged, dirty-looking 
men, a great column of them, marching, with chains upon their 
wrists. What does it mean? Why those men are prisoners who 
have been captured on the battlefield; and they have been brought 
to Eome; and now, as the triumphant army moves into the city, 
these prisoners are displayed between the ranks, to swell the grand- 
eur of their entry. These are the men who once threatened to 
destroy. But now they are chained, captives in the Eternal City, 
and all power to hurt is gone. 

And so, brethren, these things that press upon us, these dangers., 
these difficulties, this tribulation and persecution — ah, some of 
God^s people over in China know even now what persecution and 
famine and nakedness and peril and sword mean; and we, too, 
all have our burdens; we have all bent beneath them, and said: 
"Who is sufficient for these things ?^^ and "All these things are 
against us,^^ bu^t brethren, brethren, the apostle says these things 
shall not separate us from the love of Christ, they shall only help 
to swell the triumph at the end of it all. They shall make the 
victory more complete and glorious. "In all these things we are 
more than conquerers through him that loved us.'^ 

And now he comes to the great climax. He has reached the high- 
est point. In anticipation of the triumphal entry of God's re- 
deemed hosts, into the city which is indeed eternal, in sight, as it 
were, of the glories of the New Jerusalem, almost in hearing of 
the acclaim of God's heavenly hosts, standing upon this Mont Blanc 
Summit of all the Bible, he exclaims: "For I am persuaded that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any created thing, shall separate us from the love which God has 
for us in Christ Jesus." Here he pauses. Here he rests his argu- 
ment. Has he not made good his point? Has he not proved that 
all things work together for good to them that love God?" If he 



THE AS5UEED SATETT OF THE SAIZsTS. 751 

has not, then there is nothing in logic to convince, nor anything in 
speech to persuade. 

And what shall I say more ? Do we need to say more ? Can we 
not plant onrselYes beside the apostle on this mountain peak ? Can 
we not say : We, too, are persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing shall sep- 
arate us from the love which G-od has for ns in Christ Jesus ? Thank 
God for this old eighth chapter of Eomans. Let ns plant onr- 
selves upon it anew. Let ns try to live by it as we have never done 
before. Let ns believe in G-od's eternal, nnchangeable love. Let 
ns believe that nothing can separate ns from that love; bnt that 
all things shall somehow work for onr good. 

And one thing more, brethren, this old eighth chapter of Eo- 
mans will do to die by as well as to live by. God will not forsake 
ns in death any more than in life. Xothing shall separate ns from 
his love then. I commend to yon the example of the old Scotch 
Christian as he faced the last great enemy. He lay npon his conch 
dying. His children were gathered abont him. The snpreme mo- 
ment had come. He said to one of his children, ^^Bring me the 
Book."' They say, '^hich book, father?'*'' And he said, "The 
Bible, the Bible; there is bnt one Book now.'' And they bronght 
him the Bible. And then he said : ^Tnrn to the eighth chapter of 
Eomans." And they tnmed to this chapter. Then he said: "Pnt 
my fingers on the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses." And they 
took his long, wasted fingers, and laid them gently on the thirty- 
eighth and thirty-ninth verses; and then he added: ^^ly children, 
I took breakfast with yon this morning; to-night I shall take snp- 
per with the Lord on high, Tor I am persnaded that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pres- 
ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created 
thing, shall be able to separate me from the love which God has 
for me in Christ Jesns.' " 



752 THE AMERICAN BxiPTIST PULPIT. 

Lxin 

AMEEICA AS A FIELD OF OPPOETUmTY* 



By H. L. Morehouse^ D. D., 
American Baptist Home Mission Society. 

"As ye have opportunity, do good to all men." — Gal. 6 : 10. 

AMEEICA has furnished unparalleled opportnnities to hu- 
manity and to Christianity. It is of opportunities for Amer- 
ican Christianity in general and for American Baptists in par- 
ticular that I speak. 

To the persecuted Pilgrims, America presented an open door of 
hope. To Eoger Williams the Providence Plantations afforded an 
opportunity for his new experiment of separation of Church and 
state and religions liberty to all. After the adoption by Congress 
in 1792 of a constitutional amendment to the same effect, and the 
abolition of state taxation for support of an established church. 
Baptists, long and sorely persecuted, had the opportunity of a free 
field. Theirs had been a hard struggle upward. Starting in 1639, 
by 1792 they numbered 65,000; in 1800, about 100,000; and in 
1832, when the American Baptist Home Mission Society was or- 
ganized, 385,000. That hundred thousand in 1800, widely scat- 
tered, with slow means of communication, largely unorganized for 
aggressive work, with very limited resonrces, but with strong con- 
victions, sturdy souls and faith in God, faced coming responsibili- 
ties, imiparting a momentum to the work that has carried our num- 
bers at the close of the century to fully four millions. 

1. The First Door Opening for the Extension of Christ's King- 
dom was the West. 

Where, then, was "the West ?' Early in the century a man from 
Massachusetts went to the far west and about fifty years later, at 
the same abode, died in the far east — ^near Eochester, N". Y. In 



*Delivered before the tenth annual convention of the Baptist Young 
People's Union of America, at Cincinnati, in July, 1900. 




mim L i®iEBa®yiE, i= i. 



HEXRY LYMAN :M0REH0U8E was born in Stcanford, Dutchess county, 
X. Y., October 2, IS.'U. Thomas ]\Iorehouse, the first American ancestor, 
came to Connecticut before 1040, making his home at Fairlielcl in lOoo. 
The subject of this sketch removed witli his parents to Avon, N. Y., in 
1840; was oraduated at the rniveisity of Ivocliester in ISoS and at the 
Rochester TheoU)oical Seminary in 18(14: w;i.s in the pastorate nearly 
fifteen years in East Saginaw. ^Michigan, and Rochester, N. Y., where 
for two years lie wais also corresponding secretary of the New York Baptist 
I'nion for ^Ministerial Education; received his honorary degree from his 
alma mater in 1870: was elected the same year corresponding secretary 
of the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York City; after 
serving thirteen years he resigned in 1892; was then made honorary secre- 
tary, and in 1803 field secretary of the society, which position he now 
holds. During his vigorous ii.dniinistration the work of the society ex- 
])anded nearly fourfold, with largely increased resources. His was the 
initiative in the organization of the Church Edifice Benevolent Fund of the 
Society; and he wrought out the plan of co-operation with Southern Bap- 
tists, white and colored, in missionary and educational work for the col- 
ored people. To his agency pre-(Mninently is d\ie the fact that the white 
Baptists of the North and of the South who separated on the question of 
slavery in 1845 came together in practical efVorts for the colored people in 
1805. He wrote an extended history of the society for the period of fifty 
years ending 1882, and for fourteen years was editor of the Baptist Home 
Mission Monthly, and in recent years an editor of Home 3Iission Echoes. 
^fany of liis addresses and other productions, including a number of poems, 
liave been published and widely circulated. 

It was h(- who was conspicuously instrumental in the organization of 
the American F)aptist Education Society in 1888, through whose initial ac- 
tivity the now famous l^niversity of Chicago was started the first year with 
one million dollars. This society has been instrumental, largely through 
the liberality of John D. Rockefeller, Esq., in strengthening the educa- 
tional institutions of the denomination by large additions to their en- 
dowments. In 1803 he was elected corresponding secretary of the Education 
Society, and still holds this ]i(^sition. 

He is ollicially idcMitilicd witli sc'\t>ral educational institutions for the 
colored people, in whose welfare he has taken a deep interest. His ex- 
tensive travels over the continent have given him an intimate knowledge 
of atVairs. In organizing and administrative ability his superiority is con- 
ceded, and his labors have made a strong and abiding impression for good 
iipon the Baptist denomination and upon our land. 
(754) 



a:merica as a field of oppobtuxitt. 755 

1832^ fEe far west of civilization was the Mississippi Yalley: but 
before 1850 it meant the region beyond, to the Pacific. Gradual 
was the growth of population at first; swift at last. For the first 
quarter of this century the rising tide, in peaceful ripples, crept 
quietly westward over fertile fields towards the Mississippi, where 
the people, mostly Americans, engaged in pastoral pursuits, af- 
forded opportunity for organization of churches as in the East. Be- 
fore the middle of the century a rushing, turbid torrent was pouring 
into California, which became a combination of Bedlam and Babel. 
CroGs currents set in from every quarter, ^-ith diverse destinations. 
Within seven years California had a population larger than that 
of Michigan, Indiana, or Illinois thirty years after their first set- 
tlement, and as large as Massachusetts after two hundred years. It 
took a creeping civilization three hundred years to reach the Mis- 
sissippi; afterward, in one-sixth the time, with steaming steeds, it 
swept twice as far across the continent. Almost bewildering at 
times has been its development, as when the virgin prairies of Okla- 
homa were in one day covered by a hundred thousand people. Its 
development is still going on. Millions of acres this year will be 
opened to settlers. Great cities are rising around the magnificent 
harbors of the Pacific. Alaska's gold attracts thousands. 

With most, not godliness, but gain, was the master motive. The 
devout Pilgrim knelt on bleak Xew England's shore in adoration of 
God; the Argonaut knelt by the rocker with its golden sands, his 
one passionate prayer being, "^"More.'^ In St. Louis, early in the cen- 
tury, infidels declared that the Sabbath had never crossed the Mis- 
sissippi and it never would. Twenty years ago men said : ''IVest of 
Bismarck, no Sabbath; west of Miles City, no God.'' The West has 
been, is, and for a generation to come, will be our great mission 
field, our splendid opportunity to evangelize its godless multitudes ; 
to organize churches that shall be as oases in the desert; to lay 
foundations of a Christian civilization as our fathers laid them 
along the Atlantic; to educate the public conscience and suppress 
glaring evils, as when Christian missionaries defeated the Louisiana 
Lottery with its glittering bribes for a domicile in Xorth Dakota, 
whence it went seaward to Hawaii, where by descendants of Xgw 
England missionaries both it and a corrupt queen whom it courted 



756 THE AMERICAN" BAPTIST PULPIT. 

were swept into the sea. All of that West, with its wealth and 
its Tincomprehended possibilities was acquired from Catholic pow- 
ers and given to American Protestantism to possess for Christ. Vast 
has been the pioneer missionary work, the railroad missionary work, 
the constructive missionary work of the Home Mission Society 
there. Full of young men, the West appeals particularly to the 
young people for its evangelization. 

"The elements of empire there 
Are plastic yet and warm, 
The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form." 

2. N'ote the Eapidly Multiplying Opportunities Ek^where. 

Doors opened in swift succession on every side; into the Ger- 
man immigrant field in 1839; the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, 
and French Canadian fields from 1846 to 1853; the emancipated 
millions of the South in 1863; wider to the Indians as a result of 
Grant's "Peace Policy," in 1869 ; the same year to the Chinese and 
the ^lexicans ; and in the last two decades to the Bohemians, Poles, 
Portuguese, Finns, Italians, Hollanders, and Japanese; and lastly, 
in Cuba and Porto Eico. Fields within fields, and more to follow ! 
It was not an opportunity to be passed by when God gave us 
converts eager and able to tell their country in their own vernacu- 
lar the way of life. 

The multiplicity, variety, urgency, and importance of these fields, 
with their complex problems have been unprecedented in the his- 
tory of any other Christian people, making this the unique mission 
field of the world. 

3. What of These Twenty-two Millions of Foreign Birth and 
Parentage ? 

JSTearly nine-tenths are in the N'orth and West. About one-third 
are Eoman Catholics; one-third birthright members of State 
churches where spirituality is a mere spark among the ashes of 
formalism; the remainder composed of some evangelical Chris- 
tians, many infidels, agnostics, anarchists, and other foes of order 
and of God. Many have most gross misconceptions of Christianity, 



AMERICA AS A FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY. 757 

as instanced by the fact that the christening of a babe and the 
burial of the dead are often accompanied with bacchanalian carou- 
sals; a thoroughfare to an Eastern cemetery having a saloon with 
this sign : "Wines and liquors at distillery prices. Fnneral parties 
quickly served." 

Whatever the human object in their coming in such enormous 
numbers, is not the Divine purpose their salvation ? We have sent 
missionaries to these peoples abroad; now God has flnng masses 
of them into the very lap of American Christianity. We need 
not go three thousand miles to them; they have come three thous- 
and miles and more to us. There, multitudes were inaccessible; 
here, we touch them on every hand ; there they were slaves to over- 
mastering social influences, public opinion and priestly power, 
hostile to a change of faith; here they have liberty; in Quebec a 
bishop^s boycott ruins the business of a heretic ; in New England the 
boycotted heretic recovers heavy damages from the bishop; there, 
hearts were doubly bolted by igTiorance and bigotry; here, seeing 
things in a new light, breathing the air of our free institutions, 
broadened by contact with progressive spirits, they become open- 
minded and receptive to truth; there, Eomanism holds them fast; 
here within a decade, by its own admissions, 25,000 French Cana- 
dians, and in the past, altogether, four or five million descendants of 
Catholic ancestry have slipped from its grip forever. The 52,000 
Baptists among these people are hardly half our harvest, for thou- 
sands are merged in our English-speaking churches, often most 
valuable members. They are more than half of all the Baptists on 
this continent a hundred years ago ; organized contingents of tested 
faith and zeal and courage, whose swifter and more forceful strokes 
for truth and righteousness will tell yet more effectively in the 
future. 

The inscriptions on the cross was in three languages ; at Pentecost 
the gospel was preached in many tongues; the great apostle to the 
Gentiles spoke in three languages ; but here in this American poly- 
glot population ia the crowning opportunity for Christianity. 

4. What of the American Negro? 

In 1862, before emancipation, and while war clouds darkened 
the sky, the Home Mission Society with almost prophetic ken said 



758 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

of the issue: "We see the Divine hand most distinctly and most 
imperatively beckoning ns on to the occupancy of a field broader, 
more important, more promising than has ever invited onr toils;" 
and in 1864, happily applying to the freedmen the words of Scrip- 
ture, said: 

"I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, 
and they shall trust in the name of the Lord; afflicted, and there- 
fore, objects of S3^mpathy; poor, and therefore objects of charity; 
prepared to trust in the name of the Lord, and therefore encourag- 
ing objects of evangelic labor." Were they mistaken ? Never in the 
Christian centuries has there been among any people in a single 
generation a harvest field like this ! More than a million gathered 
into Baptist churches alone! Thirty-five years ago, 400,000 col- 
ored Baptists; now, 1,800,000; then, inexperienced, and unorgan- 
ized; now, organized into conventions and missionary societies; 
then, an illiterate mass; now, 35,000 negro teachers instructing a 
million eight hundred thousand children; then, a preacher who 
could read, an exception; now, the exception is one who cannot; 
then, rude and few houses of worship; now, numerous and often 
elegant church edifices; then, hardly a negro in the professions; 
now, hundreds of educators, editors, lawyersi, and phy^^icians; then, 
shut up to the promotion of their own interests; now, mightily 
stirred for the evangelization of Africa! Some of this progress 
is attributable to the work of white Baptists of the South for their 
slaves; some to the public school system; very much to the work 
of the Home Mission Society, in its outlay of about four million 
dollars for educational and missionary purposes; and much to tlie 
irrepressible zeal and ambition of the people themselves. Consider 
the noble products of this investment, the capable men and women 
all over the South; we would not have these four million dollars 
back if we could. 

The elementary stages of our work have passed; higher, broader, 
constructive work is to be done. Yet, in some sections where masses 
of negroes are largely segregated from the whites and remote froin 
educational privileges, grotesque notions of religion prevail; con- 
version consisting in experiences of visions, dreams, and spiritual 
and physical paroxysyms in graveyards at midnight, and things 



AaCEEICA AS A FIELD OF OPPOETUXITY. 759 

of this sort. These need re-evangelization and instnietion in Bibli- 
cal tmth. By raising up capable teachers and preachers of their 
own race, through the instnimentaliTT of our Christian schools, 
from which four or five thousand yonths return annuallv as lighted 
torches to illuminate the darkness; and also by onr plan of co- 
operation with Southern Baptists, both white and colored, we are 
striving to effect a yet greater transformation. 

Xever was a people more accessible, never more nntrammeled, 
never more receptive. Here is the plastic clay for the potter. Paul 
did not spend his whole time in making converts, but much in 
tears, in making something out of them. His was Corinthian 
clay, Ephesian clay, much of it repulsive sniff to shape for the 
Master. He did it patiently, lovingly, heroically. How are we 
doing it here? Eelnctantly, because it is repulsive? Daintily, 
lest our hands be soiled? The fairest hands are those of the 
potter, and beautiful hands will those be before the Master that 
have sought to make vessels meet for His use. With high ideals 
the potter sings while he fashions the clay and sees far away his 
valuable vase of exquisite grace, a conspicuous thing in the couris 
of the King. 

5. And What of the Indian? 

Xever has this aboriginal pagan field been so open to us as 
now. The five civilized tribes, with their four thousand Baptist 
communicants prove that the Indians can be Christianized. But, 
of the ^•'Blanket Indians,'^ what? When a nomad, ranging the 
plains in quest of the buffalo, or of his foes; later, while chafing 
under military surveillance or restricted reservations, he was in no 
mood for the gospel from the paleface. He knows that the day 
of doom for him as an Indian has come; that he must face lifers 
serious problems like others, and that in the struggle for existence 
with the stronger race he is in danger of being driven to the wall. 
So, as in the case of the aristocratic Kiowas, they turn to us for 
missionaries and teachers ; and, lo I where a few years ago there 
was not a Christian man among them, now there are nearlv two 
hundred church members, including the principal chiefs; and their 
old leader in their war dances sends us his discarded club, saying: 
"Old things have passed away for Gotebo.^^ 



760 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

Among tlie 250,000 Indians maltreated and maligned, is the 
opportunity for ns to take the part of the good Samaritan, hear- 
ing onr Lord's bidding: "Go thon and do likewise;'' having practi- 
cal compassion on them and helping them on their way — the white 
man's way, and the '^^Jesius road." 

6. And Would You Know of Mexico ? 

With a resounding clang Ihat was heard by J^apoleon III., that 
startled the Vatican, and crazed Carlotta, as Maximilian met his 
fate at Queretaro thirty-three years ago, its long-closed doors 
swung wide open to evangelical Christianity. The constitution 
of the republic accorded religious liberty to all. Eome, who for 
centuries rode richly caparisoned at the front, was sent stripped 
of her holdings to the rear, where she yet sulks and snarls, while 
the Liberal party with its superb and progressive president, Pro- 
firio Diaz, is in power. Eailroads render all Mexico accessible; 
telegraphs and telephones facilitate communications; schools and 
newspapers enlighten and inform the people, who are becoming 
more and more open-minded and friendly to us; and so these 
thirteen millions, embracing two millions who^ speak not the Span- 
ish, but Mexican and Indian languages, present to us probably 
the greatest and neediest mission field on this continent. Eight 
adjacent to us is this opportunity; upon us pre-eminently, yes, 
exclusively, rests the responsibility for the evangelization of 
Mexico. Alas, that in a field so vast, for lack of means, we are 
doing so little. 

"For fields at lioine, for fields abroad 
The streams of Christian giving flow; 
Most blessed streams. But, Lord, God, 
Where are the means for Mexico?" 

7. Already You Have Heard of Cuba and Porto Eico. 

In what a wonderful way they were opened to us; of their de- 
plorable religious condition when even a papal prelate declared 
thai "Porto Eico is a Catholic country without a religion," though 
Eomanism ruled there for four hundred years; of the wide breach 
between the people and the priests who sided with Spain ; and how, 
when the reputed bones of Columbus were transferred to Spain, 



AMERICA AS A FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY. 761 

there also began the melancliolv migration thither of the dry 
bones of the Spanish hierarchy; how our missionaries were wel- 
comed, their phices of public worship thronged, the baptismal 
waters freqnently stirred; and how full of promise is that field 
if now we press our work vigorously. Let no one say with the 
mercenary Spaniard: "What are they worth to ns?" — rather in 
the compassionate spirit of Christ who came not to be ministered 
nnto, but to minister, ask: "What may we who have the truth 
be worth to them ?'^ Meeting-honses for congregations and Sunday 
schools are sorely needed there. This field will not wait, it must 
be tilled now. Is it not a token of divine favor and a sum- 
mons to generous offering, that just at this juncture God should 
have given us seven experienced workers from ^lexico, who at 
once on their arrival proclaimed to the people in their own Span- 
ish tongue the unheard of stor}^ of salvation by Christ alone, with- 
out priest or purgatory? God help us quickly to give the gospel 
to these two and a half millions of these fair islands with a 
crescent future in the coming pathway of the world's commerce 
through the inter-oceanic canal. We must complete the work of 
their civil emancipation by their emancipation from bondage to 
error and superstition. 

8. The Great xlmerican City. 

At one field more we must take a momentary look. It looms 
up in rapidly increasing dimensions; enormous wealth is there, 
enormous power, enormous wickedness, inflammable material, 
which, ignited, may sweep to swift destruction the best we have, 
like the flames that licked up cargoes and crews of iron steam- 
ships at the Hoboken fire. 

This dominating factor in our social life, in our political life, 
state and national, challenges our attention and demands enlarged 
and more energetic effort for its evangelization. It is the coming 
mission field of the twentieth century. Here is the opportunity 
for Christianity, which with but little opposition has won its 
victories in peaceful rural regions and orderly villages, to show 
whether it can master these masses in our cities, or whether it must 
beat a retreat. City and country are bound together; neither can 
safely say to the other: 'TTour condition is no concern of mine;" 



762 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PULPIT. 

nay more — JSTorth and South, East and West are likewise bound 
together and neither may say: "Am I my brother^s keeper?" In 
a fever stricken family in the city's slums was made a garment 
that bore the deadly germs to a palatial home on the Ilndison. In 
the West was a tornado swept desert, whose defilement at length 
came down in black snov/ on Chicago^. God have pity and save the 
city; God gird ns for onr task of conquering that and this whole 
continent for Christ. 

Now, in a final word, here is the opportunity of the Christian 
centuries for Christianity to be at its best and do its best. Among 
effete peoples of Egypt, Greece, and Kome, encountering a glitter- 
ing paganism with its seductive philosophies, encompassed by 
hostile influences and breathing a pestilential atmosphere, though 
Christianity wrought wonders it had not a fair chance on a large 
scale to show its great capabilities, ^'either in many modem 
European countries have conditions been favorable. But here, in 
this continental preserve, in an absolutely free field, with ample 
scope, with great incentives to action — here on this mount of 
privilege and opportunity, if anywhere on earth, should be its trans- 
figuration, and here through the divine Spirit its miracles of 
ministration. Eor this, has not the world been waiting — to see 
Christianity at its best? To this far off divine event have not the 
processes of the centuries been tending? "This people,'' said 
Jehovah of Israel, "have I formed for myself; they shall show 
forth my praise." Does it not seem that here, again, in these later 
times, when a mighty people thoroughly Christian could be a tre- 
mendous force in the world's evangelization, he would have us 
feel that in a peculiar sense he has formed us for himself; to 
show forth his praise? The brief and almost bloodless war of one 
hundred days, which dislodged the Spanish leech from her de- 
pleted possessions in this hemisphere and elsewhere, made us the 
c}Tiosure of the nations and changed the world's attitude toward us 
and ours toward the world; while our acquisitions in Hawaii, 
Guam, Samoa and the Philippines are simply stepping stones in 
the path of duty and destiny. Are we so thoroughly Christian as 
to be a pattern to other people? How long must we hear the 



AMERICA AS A FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY. 763 

heathen taunt: "Physician, heal thyself?" Have ^e here a satis- 
factory expression of the highest capabilities of Christianity? Is 
America yet Christian, when among its 100,000,000, we have only 
14,000,000 evangelical Christians, half of these somnolent, giving 
nothing, doing nothing worth mentioning for Christ; counting 
much and weighing little ? Must we not, somehow, at the opening 
gate of the twentieth century begin a fresh campaign with this our 
watchword : Evangelize, organize, energize, and utilize our forces 
for Christ. 

Baptist Young People of America, this magnificent field of 
opportunity is peculiarly yours. Here, fifty years hence, will be 
250,000,000; a hundred years hence 500,000,000 souls. We are 
working for that to-morrow as well as for to-day. Here is to be 
your home. Xeglect now means nettles then. The thorough 
evangelization of America is of paramount importance for the pre- 
servation and perpetuation of the best in our civilization and for 
the more speedy evangelization of the world. Let us not, intent 
on things afar, forget our duty here. I say this : 

"Lest we forget; lest we forget." Heirs of the past; help of the 
present; hope of the future; your lot, 3^our privileges., your oppor- 
tunities are the envy of mankind. To our American minister at 
the court of Siam, the young crown prince djmg, said : "Mr. Bar- 
rett, if I am to be born again, I want to be born an American." 
Baptist young people, American-born and born again of the Holy 
Spirit, thankful for your high calling, gird yourselves anew to make 
the most of these opportunities and of yourselves, for country, for 
humanity, for Christ. 



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